Metal Giants
by TheSealer
Summary: Eragon remembered Orik telling him about Giants. He never thought he would see one in Alagaësia. Let alone one made of metal! Years after Galbatorix is killed, a new race comes to Alagaësia from the stars! And they brought their eon-long war with them.
1. Arrived and awakened

Why am I doing this? Because I feel the story of **Alagaesia **has two plot-holes. First, we never came to learn much about the past. Why did the **Elves** and **Urgals** left their homeland? And then why **Humans** and **Ra'zac** did the same?

Second, the races of Alagaesia seemed a bit, I dunno, isolated from the rest of the world. We don't know what's south of Beor Mountains, even though Dwarves have lived there for millenia. Or what's north of Du Weldenvarden, despite the elves having dwelled there for so long. Even the dragons, who are the only creatures that can cross the Hadarac desert can only speculate what is east of Alagaesia.

So I figured why not a species from other world (rather than other continent like in some other stories) show up and give them a wake-up call.

Usually I don't like crossovers with magic and technology involved. But **Paolini** outdone himself with the fourth book**Inheritance** by inserting science disguised as science. I think the **Transformers** and their million-year long war can fit in the Inheritance Cycle. I already have ideas of how they fit in the first plot-hole I mentioned.

For instances, to explain the connection between science and magic, Optimus and Eragon will have a sort of debate/friendly chat. But no spoilers!

Characters from both worlds will form bonds of companionship or enmity. For example, Roran will be branded sworn enemy of Soundwave. And Arya will gain a sort of friendship in battle with...nah, no spoilers. But believe me Arya's 'partner' will make you flip!

One final note, there will be sparklings in this story. Teenage/children cybertronians that are human/elven-sized.

The Transformers are mostly from the **War for Cybertron/Fall of Cybertron** games. Though **Optimus**, **Megatron** and others retain their appearance on the **Transformers: Prime** cartoon. The plot will be a mix of all these three with modified part of Fall of Cybertron. To make matters simple, when a Transformer is introduced the name of the continuity is put after in bold in parentheses. Also I'll be using some Transformers of the **Live Action** franchise.

The story happens over 50 thousand years after the death of **Cybertron** and 23 years after the end of **Inheritance**. I'll be introducing new dragons and riders, of course.

* * *

><p><strong>METAL GIANTS<strong>

**Arrived and awakened**.

_MANY MILLIONS OF YEARS AGO, ON THE MECHANICAL PLANET CYBERTRON, LIFE EXISTED. BUT NOT LIFE AS WE KNOW IT, GIANT INTELLIGENT ROBOTS THAT COULD THINK AND FEEL INHABITED THE CITIES. THEY WERE CALLED CYBERTRONIANS._

_IN TIME, CORRUPTION AND INEQUALITY INSTALLED IN THE GOVERNMENT AND SOCIETY. AND SO BEGAN THE WAR BETWEEN THE FREEDOM-FIGHTERS AUTOBOTS AND THE TYRANNICAL CONQUERING DECEPTICONS. A WAR THAT EVENTUALLY POISONED CYBERTRON TO THE CORE._

_WITH THEIR HOME WORLD DYING, BOTH SIDES WERE FORCED INTO A MASSIVE EXODUS._

_50 000 years before Saphira hatched._

"We have no choice Bumblebee." Optimus Prime **(TF Prime)**, heroic leader of the Autobots spoke to his young scout, Bumblebee **(TF Prime)** "The war is lost. Leaving Cybertron is the hardest decision I have ever had to make."

They were on a massive flat space-ship, called _Ark,_ leaving the planet going dark below. Cybertron had lost the capacity for sustaining life. They were now forced to find a new life out there in the stars.

"It has been a painful war with the Decepticons." they came into the bridge. They could see the _Ark_ was flying towards a light green and blue vortex in space. "Whatever lies beyond that portal, it's our last, best hope, my friend."

'**I hope so Optimus.'** Bumblebee's speech was a collection of beeps and sounds. He couldn't speak normally because in a previous battle, the young soldier had his voicebox torn out.

When Cybertron began dying, the production of energon, the life-blood of the Cybertronians, dwindled. Therefore both sides began sending their supplies of energon off-world. The portal itself lead to an unknown destination, a planet where extensive supplies of energon had been salvaged.

"We're approaching the portal, Prime." Bulkhead **(TF Prime)** , the large, green warrior at the helm announced.

"If we don't crossover the vortex quickly, it will collapse with us inside." Ratchet **(TF Prime)**, an old medical officer said grimly.

A shadow drowned the bridge crew. They looked up to see a dark ship flying above them. It had much sharper built and two long prongs on the front, passing as tusks. It was the _Nemesis_, the Decepticon flagship.

"Megatron **(TF Prime)**." Optimus frowned, mentally preparing for battle.

Grappling cables descended from the Decepticon vessel and pierced into the bridge of the _Ark_. Chaos sparked as the Decepticons began boarding!

"Fire on those grappling cables." Optimus commanded. Shots were exchanged between enemies. Bumblebee fired on a Decepticon but a second cable fired at where he was standing. Bumblebee leaped out of its way just in time, but the blast knocked him out. The last thing he heard before passing out was Optimus:

"All hands to combat!"

"Bumblebee...can you hear me?" the scout heard the echoing voice and woke up to find the white and orange form of Ratchet examining him. "He's coming around."

"Thank Primus." Optimus sighed.

'**I'm fine, Ratchet.'**

"Ep, ep, ep!" the medic chibed. "You're not fine. Not until I say so."

Optimus helped Bumblebee up and the scout examined his surroundings. They were still on the bridge, which now bore signs of a recent battle. Bodies of Decepticons laid everywhere, with some Autobots too. The scout felt a pang of hurt, looking into the lifeless eyes of a fellow combatant nearby. At least the grappling cables had been cut off.

"Optimus!" came the azure slender femme Arcee **(TF Prime)** urgently. "Decepticons are swarming the engine deck."

"That's close to the protoforms' bunker." everyone present displayed a feeling of dread and despair. Another tragic consequence of Cybertron's death was birthrate plummeting into zero. The three children - called 'protoform' - aboard the _Ark_ were some of the very few juvenile Cybertronians left.

"The _Nemesis_ is launching cables into the engine deck." Optimus turn to a group of Autobots. "Go join our comrades there. Arcee, go with Ironhide **(Live Action) **and Warpath **(WFC)**. Ratchet, Bulkhead and Bumblebee, stay and guard the bridge."

* * *

><p>Optimus and a few others had made their way to the hull of the <em>Ark<em> to take out the cables. They were almost done when Megatron himself, the Lord of the Decepticons, landed there. Megatron was a tall giant, towering a few feet above Optimus. His armor was grey with a few purple highlights. The shoulder blades spiked and the face scarred from centuries of battling. The right arm had a big fusion cannon attached.

"Optimus, always fighting no matter how desperate the situation is. Clearly you must see how pointless your struggle is."

"Not while my spark lives, Megatron." Optimus right arm transformed into a blade. Megatron unsheathed his own sword, beneath his fusion cannon and the two leaders engaged into another epic battle.

Megatron drew a horizontal arc with his blade but Optimus ducked. The Prime took chance and struck a cut in Megatron's chest. The warlord didn't let that debilitate him and stabbed with more killing intend now. Optimus parried every strike until Megatron gave a roundhouse kick that sent Optimus' arm astray. The warlord took the chance to pounce and pin him down, immobilizing his armed hand.

"You're as soft as the weaklings you fight for!" Megatron threw punch after punch into Optimus' face. It didn't last for the Prime shifted his other arm into a large gun and fired at Megatron. The blow pushed him away and Optimus got up to deliver his own fist into Megatron's scarred mug.

"On the contrary, Megatron. My friends are the source of my strenght."

Megatron steadied himself and prepared to carry on, yet he saw something that made him stop and laugh victoriously.

"You've already lost, Optimus." Megatron sneered. "The portal is destabilizing. Your precious Ark is not going anywhere. Not while I still possess an alternative means to an end. Behold!"

What Megatron indicated made despair grip Optimus even tighter. The _Harbinger_, another Decepticon warship, was flanking the _Ark_ and fired its own hooked cables, grasping the Autobot ship.

"Your hope was for nothing, Prime!"

Then the portal collapsed. It happened a bit sooner than Megatron had anticipated. The three ships were nearly entering it. Lightning sparked in every direction. Space seemed to be twisting and being ripped apart. The space ships found themselves being sucked into the vortex, spinning like feathers in a tornado.

"What?! No!" Megatron roared. He and the Prime too were being sucked in. They grabbed onto the _Ark_'s hull for dear life. The ships were now crossing over the unstable green and blue vortex.

Optimus couldn't stop thinking if this was it. Autobots and Decepticons, he and Megatron were to perish together? Was this how the war would finally end? If it was what it took to bring peace to his race, then Optimus would welcome oblivion.

However he still hoped this wasn't the end for all his comrades inside the Ark. He prayed to Primus that the ship would hold. Not for self-preservation but to ensure his friends would survive.

"_Please, let this work._"

The blue and green environment thundered violently, like an actual storm moved to wiped them all out. Optimus felt the ship and his body been pushed forward by an unseen force and then the green and blue gave way to black of space.

The Prime opened his eyes to see they were out of the vortex and back into space! They had survived!

"NO, I WILL NOT BE DENIED!"

And so had Megatron. The Decepticon was right behind Optimus, barely holding on. The three ships were spinning out of control, making impossible for the battle to continue. Though that didn't stop the warlord from trying to punch Optimus. The Prime retaliated with a kick in the face which made Megatron let go and spiralled out of control.

"OPTIMUS!" he roared in fury.

While the ship was spinning, Optimus a big marble of blue, brown and green, the planet they were meant to go to. Now he realized reality was still grim nonetheless. They were not in orbit with the planet, they were falling into it.

Concentrating, he pulled himself into a hatch and managed to return into the _Ark_. He communicated with Bulkhead electronically:

_"What is happening, Bulkhead?"_

_"Optimus, we gotta a major prob. The vortex destabilized the ships' navigating system. We're plummeting and I can't pull this tub back up. We're gonna crash land in less than an hour."_

_"Trajectory?"_

_"We're landing in a continent, right next to a large catalogued energon depo."_

Optimus ran to the bridge, while thinking of the next course of action. On his way he saw injured Autobots being attended. Usually he would have stayed and help them but the situation was urgent. When he arrived on the bridge, his soldiers were battered but not crippled.

"Optimus, what do we do?" Ratchet asked.

"There's only one alternative, old friend. We go into the stasis pods." Optimus sent his message to the whole ship "All hands into the stasis pods! I repeat, into the stasis pods!"

The stasis pods were cryogenic containers, nearly indestructible where a Cybertronian could slumber indefinitely and be safe. The pods would open after a few hours. The whole crew entered the pods, Optimus helping out the injured and only entering his after making sure everyone was safe. His last thought before entering stasis was hoping that the future would be safeguarded as well.

On that day, four objects crash-landed onto the planet. The _Nemesis_ in Alalëa, home of the Elves and Urgals, and was almost destroyed in the process. The elves, timid at that time, would eventually come to discover the torn ship and open Pandora's Box which would change the destiny of theirs and other races forever.

The _Harbinger_ crash-landed more safely in Laurunia, home of the Humans and Werecats. It was lead by the Decepticon chief scientist Shockwave **(TF Prime)** and though intact, it would remain dormant for many thousand of years.

Megatron, alone, falls in the south of the Beor Mountains, were the rocks and dirt of centuries would cover and hide his unconscious frame.

The _Ark_ ends up beyond Hadarac desert, in an area outside the east limits of Alagaësia. Because of the crash, the pod systems would remain closed for millennia. And so would the Autobots.

* * *

><p><em>50 023 years later.<em>

_ALAGAËSIA, THE LAND OF DRAGONS AND DWARVES. WHEN THE GRACEFUL ELVES AND THE BELLICOSE__URGALS CAME BY SEA, A TRAGIC WAR STARTED BETWEEN ELVES AND DRAGONS. A WAR THAT BOTH SIDES WOULD LATER REGRET._

_IN THE AFTERMATH, THE DRAGON RIDERS - SHUR'TUGAL IN THE ELVEN LANGUAGE - WERE ESTABLISHED TO ASSURE THE PEACE BETWEEN THE TWO RACES. CENTURIES PASSED UNTIL HUMANS AND THE RA'ZAC WHO PREYED ON THEM ARRIVED. THE HUMANS JOINED THE DRAGON RIDERS AND HUNTED DOWN THE EVIL RA'ZAC._

_PEACE REIGNS UNTIL A YOUNG RIDER, DRIVEN INSANE BY THE LOSS OF HIS DRAGON, BETRAYS HIS ORDER. HE STEALS A NEW DRAGON, GATHERS A GROUP OF 13 TRAITOROUS RIDERS WHO AGREED TO SERVE HIM AND BEGINS A MAD QUEST TO DESTROY THE DRAGON RIDERS._

_AFTER MANY BATTLES AND BLOODSHED, GALBATORIX AND HIS DISCIPLES ARE SUCCESSFUL. FROM THERE FORTH, GALBATORIX BECOMES UNDISPUTED KING OVER ALL HUMANS IN ALAGAËSIA. _

_DWARVES AND ELVES ARE FORCED INTO HIDING, WAITING FOR EVENTUAL DESTRUCTION AND HOPING FOR A SIGN OF HOPE._

For a hundred years the ruthless mad king Galbatorix had ruled and oppressed Alagaësia. For a hundred years, the dragons have been on the brink of extinction and the heroic Dragon Riders defunct.

But that all changed 23 years ago. A farm boy named Eragon discovered the egg of Saphira, the blue female dragon to whom he bonded. Together they joined the freedom-fighters, the Varden, were taught by the last elder Rider and dragon, and defeated Galbatorix.

Then, the Riders were reestablished far from Alagaësia, given their home island had been rendered uninhabitable. Eragon, Saphira and the elves that accompanied them explored the lands east of Alagaësia and discovered a wild but habitable place.

There was an extensive plateau surrounded by mountain chains east, north and south that rivalled the spine. The plateau was vast, fertile and hard to have access to, except on the back of a dragon. In the center was the city of the dragons and riders called Du Fläo abr Daburthr, meaning 'The Nest of Rebirth' in the ancient language.

But the action now wasn't focused on the city. On the east side of the plateau, there was a place where the air smelled like sulfur, called the Smoldering Holes. Hot gas was emitted from deep holes in the ground like a dragon breathing fire. This was an interesting but dangerous place that Eragon and Saphira labeled off-limits for inexperienced dragons and riders, alike. But the wild, unbonded dragons are arrogant and rarely obey to any power other than their wild elders.

Which was why two young, impish ones, Endurol and Flakvira, were flying to the the Smoldering Holes. Both dragons were the size of a small house and relatively new at flying. Endurol, the light-blue male and Flakvira, the golden-brown female landed and looked around. This was known among dragons as the nostrils-that-blow-burning-air. The gas was inflammable and some young and boastful dragons took pleasure in displays of prowess by igniting a whiff.

Endurol motioned the female to watch him as he approached one of the holes and listened. The Eldunarí elders and their dam, Saphira-of-the-blue-glittering-scales taught them to listen before watching. Whether its prey, predator (not that the young ones believe anything could threaten a dragon) or nature, the earing always caught it before the eye.

Endurol heard a rumbling sound from deep in nostril-that-blows-burning-air. The noise resembled the hungry-stomach-muffled-roar, slowly increasing in loudness. Endurol retreated his head from the hole. The earth trembled softly beneath his talons. The nostril blew the whiff of air that burned, the same way a dragon blows a jet of flames. Endurol breath out the fire in his belly and the fountain of gas became a fire tongue shot into the sky. The tongue-of-fire died out quickly but it was still an impressive display, albeit a short one.

Not impressive enough for Flakvira-of-the-gold-brown-hide. The female snorted bored and walked up to another nostril and waited for the eruption. But unlike her male compatriot, she rose up on her hindpaws and fired into the hole right before the eruption happened.

The result was much more explosive. The gas had not been expelled when it was ignited so the earth trembled violently and almost all the nostrils coughed up flames. A few appeared between nostrils, burping fire too. The scenario now had a slight similarity to the Burning Plains from the memories of the elder dragons. It had more fire, more heat and more thundering than Endurol's try.

Flakvira turned to the male, who honestly looked quite impressed. Endurol had convinced her to accompany him in an attempt to impress the female with his daring and his bravado. Yet he was the one who was surprised.

"_Never try to court a female that is more daring than you._" Flakvira advised, only adding injury to insult. It was very rare for wild dragons to speak in any tongue, even the Ancient Language. Most couldn't even do it, and those who could usually they only did it to say something meaningful.

A thunder-rage-roar, louder than either dragon could make, cut off their attention. They both recognized that roar and both knew what it ensued. They turned to see a rapidly growing blue speck which turned out to be Saphira Bjartskular, partner-of-heart-and-mind to Eragon Shadeslayer and Kingkiller.

They didn't have to commune mentally to tell Dam Saphira-of-the-blue-glittering-scales was angered at them. They were both wild dragons and while they respected Saphira and followed her teachings, they didn't follow her warnings as closely as those of their unbonded Eldunarí elders. After all, what was a dragon who couldn't fly to where it pleases them, even if it was against the hammer-rain and the break-flight-wind?

The matriarch landed harshly, breaking a rock beneath her paw. She surveyed the damaged land for less than a second and turned to them. In twenty-three years, Saphira had matured nicely. Though she was nowhere near the size of her old mentor Glaedr-elder-of-the-golden-scales let alone her ancient ancestor, Belgabad-mountain-of-black-peat. As a dragon she was relatively young, but she was the oldest who still possessed a body; thus, she was the foster mother of all the young ones.

The young dragons swallowed their pride and lowered their heads at the anger of their dam. They didn't apologized, per words or emotions. That would be too much for them, and Saphira knew they wouldn't. Yet a punishment was still coming. Saphira reached down with her necks and bite them on the head, first Flakvira and then Endurol. The bite didn't hurt or wounded them much, but it did cause a great discomfort and served as a warning for the future.

Both dragons took off after Saphira, mentally preparing themselves to hear from the Eldunarí elders too.

* * *

><p>Unbeknownst to the dragons, Flakvira's earthquake had caused the <em>Ark<em>, buried deep in the area, to shake and wake up some of its crew. Those in turn woke up all the other Autobots.

"Is everyone alright?" Optimus asked, after the last stasis pod was opened.

"Gonna take forever to fix this." Jolt **(ROTF)**, the blue engineer who tends to play with electricity grunted, examining the internal damage of a nearby computer. "Mainframe seems to be operational. Though I doubt this tub will ever fly again."

"Teletran," Optimus invoked the ship's computer. "report. How long have we been in stasis?"

"_Configuring...50 023 stellar cycles."_ that brought a great many of gasps and grimaces from the Autobots.

"We've been napping for over 50 000 years!"

"Great Cybertron!"

Optimus recovered quickly and continued the analysis. "Life signs?"

"_Twenty-three Autobot life signals confirmed. Twenty Autobot life signal confirmed aboard."_

"Twenty? Confirm those readings. Who is missing?" the computer displayed the profiles of the three missing Cybertronians. They were revealed to be the three protoforms, Cybertronian kids.

"I can't believe this! We find ourselves in an unknown planet, after millenia of stasis, and the kids decide to stake out? Definitely Flare Up convinced them to go." Ratchet groaned at the mention of the most rebellious of the protoforms.

"Arcee, Bumblebee, you go get them back." after getting the children's coordinates from the computer, the azure femme turned into an alien motorcycle and the yellow scout into a futurist car and the two drove out of the buried ship.

* * *

><p>The <strong>protoforms<strong> (**children**) will be presented in the next chapter. It's a surprise. **Flakvira** and **Endurol** are not Saphira's kids, they're some of the eggs that were in the **Vault of Souls**. But since she's the oldest female dragon who still has flesh and claws, that makes her the 'mother'. Flakvira and Endurol's role is gonna relevant.


	2. First Contact

The three Autobot children - **Flare Up**, **Windshield** and **Sungaze** - and their personalities were inspired by the kids of the TF Prime franchise.

In my theory, it's possible to communicate mentally with **Cybertronians** because: **telepathy** in **Inheritance Cycle** can be the conversion of thoughts (electric pulses in the brain) into electromagnetic waves which comm systems can read. That's how bonded dragons can communicate verbally with 'Bots.

And don't blame if the Inheritance characters **vocabulary** is wrong. I've read the books for a long time in my MOTHER LANGUAGE, okay? I've only recently began peeking the english versions.

* * *

><p><strong>METAL GIANTS<strong>

**First Contact**

"Flare Up, what are you doing?"

"Just having some fun, Windy. You could use some too. You're always a stiff." said the orange and bright yellow female protoform to the gray and pale blue male one. Unlike their adult progenitors, protoforms are human-sized. Flare Up and Windshield were as tall as teenagers approaching adulthood.

"Come on, Windshield. We've been asleep for thousands of stellar cycles (years) and the radar says there not a Decepticon in sight." the third one was a small golden and brown protoform, the size of a ten-year-old, Sungaze. Unlike his two older compatriots, Sungaze had wings on his upper back.

Windshield sighed. He knew Flare Up would be able to coax Sungaze into this. He had spotted them sneaking out of the _Ark_ while the grown ups were running around. Without time to warn someone, he followed not wanting to lose them. Sungaze was young, smart and obedient but Flare Up was rebellious and lived for the thrill. She usually got in trouble and Windshield, as the oldest of the three, didn't want Sungaze, whom he saw as a younger sibling, to get wrapped in that.

His search led to see their ship had crash landed in a small, isolated plane surrounded by five tall mountains, four of which had the top covered in a white, cold substance.

"Sorry Sunny." the elder said to the youngest. "You can have fun, just so long it's not Flare Up's type of fun. The last thing I need is for Ratchet to yell about you coming back with a broken servo."

"Oh, come on, Windy. Just this once." Windshield wasn't immune to Sungaze's beseeching optics.

"What are you gonna do, anyways?" he relented

"Go up to the top of the mountain and race all the way down." Flare Up answered with a grin. "You can come with."

"Alright, but only to make sure Sungaze doesn't get scrapped."

They transformed - Flare Up into a small motor scooter, Windshield into a heavy, futurist skateboard, and Sungaze into a tiny jet - and raced up to the top. Their mountain was the smallest of the five but no less towering, imposingly standing about 2000 meters tall. It wasn't much compared with the tallest skyscrapers on Cybertron, though. The protoforms many times have gazed at their progenitors and homeworld as too big for them.

"Now that's a view!" Flare Up exclaimed. "YOOOO!"

Her shot echoed all around them. To their surprise they were on the border of a mountain chain, the tight valley their ship was buried in was to their backs and to their front was an immense foggy plateau.

"What's this white stuff, anyway?" Windshield lift up a foot, looking at the cold, white, crystal-like matter.

"It's called 'snow'. Basically it's frozen H2O." Sungaze explained. Ratchet's often took charge of Sungaze's studies. "When he learnt we were going to this planet, Ratchet taught me a few things."

"Enough talking, more sliding!" Flare Up transformed again and raced down the snowy peak. Sungaze and Windshield followed suite, the later more reluctantly than the first.

* * *

><p>Flakvira was flying to the northern ends of the plateau, in direction to the mountain chain that sieged it by north, south and east. This mountain chain was called the Shell, named by the oldest Eldunarí, Valdr, who had flew by here long ago. Unlike the Smoldering Holes, this wasn't a place forbidden by the elders.<p>

Flakvira came here frequently because of the small valley between the high peaks covered in snow. The valley was wholly covered in a variety of coal-black flowers with a scent that soothed prey such as deer. Before going hunting, Flakvira always rolled on the flowers to acquire that scent. That was one of the many reasons why she was revered and envied as a great hunter by her compatriots; a natural that shamed older, less experienced ones. That was Flakvira's secret spot which she kept hidden from the other dragons and was ready to fight for it!

Flying in between the high mountains wasn't a feat for unexperienced fliers. Though Flakvira admitted she wasn't yet a deadly expert with her wings, she was the best of her age. Regarded as a mighty example of a female dragon, she never let anything downgrade her image or her pride.

Seeing the opening, she circled the valley high. It was then she saw the damage on her precious territory. Descending slowly in circles, Flakvira saw the large hole in the middle of the valley. It had also been the spot where the most coal-black flowers used to be. Now it appeared to be the den of a giant badger.

Immediately after landing, Flakvira growled and jets of fire came out of her nostrils. Some overgrown creature had dug a den on her territory! She advanced into the hole to incinerate the invader! But hesitated when her caution, which she didn't always listen to, spoke. The elder Glaedr-of-the-golden-scales had taught her one thing:

"_Always remember the first law of hunting: do not stalk your prey until you are sure that it is prey._"

This den was large enough for her to enter with enough room to turn around. Whatever dug it, had to be a large creature. Larger than herself. Or worse, this den could be a trap for the creature to catch a prey! And while it hurt Flakvira's pride, she would rather live today, grow stronger and bigger and come back in the future.

"YOOOO!"

Flakvira retreated from the den startled and poised for attack, with a menacing roar. Yet there was no one there for her. The echo had come from the sky-eternal. Once again, Flakvira had to rely on her hearing rather than her sight. There were creatures in the mountain, one of the five that surrounded her valley.

The voices were faint but recognizable. And Flakvira found them dissimilar to the voices of any of the two-legs - be they round-ears, pointed-ears, short or horned - who resided on Du Fläo abr Daburthr.

More mice-intruders!

And these sounded to be smaller. Whoever the two-legs were, if they stood as the cause for this, they would pay. Flapping her wings after rolling in the remainder flowers, Flakvira took flight hastily and stealthily followed the sound. By flapping wings in rotational movements she could fly slow and silent as Saphira-of-the-bright-blue-scales had demonstrated. Very useful to stalk any flying prey with alert hearing.

When Flakvira turned the mountain, she felt emotions she wasn't very accustomed to: confusion, surprised, wariness. The three mice-intruders were the most bizarre hard-shelled colorful creatures, barely the size of two-legs!

The creatures were all different. One flat in unattractive tones of rain-cloud-gray and blue. The second sounded female and its hide was the same colors of the setting-red-yellow-sun. Her shape was (the closest that Flakvira could describe) that of a four legged animal with a metal neck that reached its paws then rose back up with a bizarre head at waist level. And finally the smallest one, like a golden speck with brown-dry-leaf shades flying down the mountain.

Any other sentient creature that wasn't a dragon would verify its senses were not being deceived. But not a dragon. She could feel the minds of the three pulsing, alive, different from any mind she had felt before. Yet she still felt uncanningly confused with what to do. First aden of a giant burrower creature and now three rigid-hide beings. The world was going in ever-changing circles, each one different than the last. It made the young dragon lost, confused. Flakvira didn't appreciate that one bit. It made the scales around her nostrils hitch.

"Oh, yeah! First place." spoke the loud voice of the female one. To Flakvira's growing surprise, confusion and hitching, the down-arched-neck-hard-hide-female's shell broke apart and she gained a two-leg form. The process reminded the dragon of a hedgehog-as-a-spiky-ball unrolling back into an hedgehog. But unlike the hedgehog, the two-legs-hard-hide-female retained a shining, hard shell all over her body. The other two repeat the process. Now Flakvira focused on the hides even from high above. The shells were of shiny-polish-rock that was extracted from the entrails of break-bone-ground by the two-legs, mostly by the short ones.

As far as Flakvira knew, the elders had never seen anything like this. Nothing is the same anymore. The shiny-hard-shell-two-legs were conversing something that had no interest to the dragon.

She was uncertainty on how to act. But uncertainty on a steady mind leads to curiosity, as the two-legs Eragon-partner-of-Saphira once said. And a dragon wasn't a creature of doubt or fear of the unknown. Intrigued, Flakvira makes her decision.

It had been a long time since she played this trick with her prey.

* * *

><p>"Any of you lugnuts wants to go round two? Say, on that one over there." Flare Up pointed to the tallest mountain in sight. Its peak wasn't visible from their point, shrouded in thick clouds.<p>

"That's enough thrill for today, Flare Up. We're going back to the _Ark_, Optimus must be worried." Windshield retorted with arms crossed. This time he wouldn't be persuaded.

"Kill joy." Flare Up pouted.

"Uh, guys!" Sungaze intervene with a finger pointed to the sky. A strange shape was several hundred meters above spying them. He sounded fearful. "Is that a Decepticon?"

"Decepticons don't flap their wings." Windshield nonetheless put himself in front of the group, protectively. Flare Up, not surprisingly, put herself before him to admire the coming creature. It wasn't much bigger than Ratchet's or Optimus's alt modes. The skin was covered in golden-brown like Sungaze's chassis and it shone beautifully.

"It looks like a Predacon!" Sungaze exclaimed.

"Sunny, those have been dead and rusted for Primus-knows-how-long." Flare Up made a thumbs-down. "Plus this thing is organic."

"Yeah but it looks just like one." Sungaze zoomed in his optics in wonder. He had studied records of fossilized remains and designs of those extinct cybertronian super-predators that could fly and breath fire.

"It's kinda beautiful."

"Yeah, I guess it is." Windshield admitted, though he still eyed the animal warily, expecting to attack at any moment.

"Hey, you wanna take her home, Sunny?" Flare Up joked.

"'Her'?"

"Call it femme intuition. I just know its a girl."

The organic predacon - for the lack of better term - walked in a circle around them, in a slow and delicate pace. The creature arched her neck and kept her wings extended but did not take flight. It was clear 'she' was preening, flaunting herself. Despite its menacing size and features, it was indeed beautiful. The skin shone like glittering gemstones in the faint sunlight. It posed proud and majestic like the three of them were there just to admire her.

"What's she doing?" Sungaze asked. The organic predacon was now approaching them in seemingly innocent curiosity. It walked slow and cautiously, ever ready to turn back and run.

Windshield again put himself between it and the other two protoforms, and this time made sure Flare Up stood behind him. He knew the safest, most sensible choice was to leave, but he feared any sudden movement might provoke the animal. And a lesser part of him was admittedly captivated by its beauty.

"What does she want?"

The organic predacon stopped when her snout was just a meter from Windshield. The suspense was palpable and nobody dared to make a sound or move. She remained there, looking rather expectant, her eyes never leaving the older protoform.

"She wants you to pet her." Flare Up whispered.

"What? Have you blown a neural fuse?" Windshield whispered back.

"Come on, look at her. It's obvious; she doesn't take her eyes off you."

"Yeah, and what do I got to lose? My arm? Maybe my head?" he retorted sarcastically.

"Maybe she'll let us leave if we do as she wants." Sungaze felt both scared and excited. To see this animal at a distance was safe and a bit fun. To see it so up close was exhilarating and frightening. And the small protoform was more unfamiliar with the first emotion.

"Or she'll like us so much will want me to be her new chew toy." Windshield grimaced. Seeing no other option, he carefully lift his hand and brought it closer to the creature's nostrils. When it came into contact, the organic predacon released a wave of hot air but nothing more. It took Windshield some effort not to wince at that. He slowly began to move his palm to stroke her upper jaw.

The creature began to make a rumbling sound and narrowed her eyes softly. Windshield didn't realize at first that it was purring. This encouraged him to become bolder and he scratched beneath her lower jaw with his other hand. Flare Up and Sungaze also lost their apprehension and extended their hands.

"Hey, you're not so bad, are you?" Windshield made a ghost of a smile. In that moment, the organic predacon gave him a smirk filled with sharp teeth and Windshield knew he had spoken too soon.

"Uh-oh!" the organic predacon mouthed him, leaving only his legs outside her jaws.

* * *

><p>Flakvira had the two-legs-gray-ugly-hard-hide in her mouth from the waist up. His limbs beaten in a furious panic, like an ant flouncing between the jaws of its captor. The other two were shocked and entering panic as well. They tried, to Flakvira amusement, pry him out of her jaws by pulling at his legs. Their efforts were to no avail.<p>

The female even started shouting at her in one of those two-leg tongues she couldn't understand. She always thought the two-legs ways of communing bizarre, without tails and mostly unable to show each others emotion and feeling thought the mind. Flakvira could only guess the setting-red-yellow-sun-hard-hide-female was ordering Flakvira to let go of her nest-mate. Flakvira snorted at the thought; what two-legs, even if covered in break-teeth-hard-shell, could give commands to a free-dragon?

Flakvira spat the gray-ugly. He collided and pushed his nest-mates like feathers in the wind a few meters away. Flakvira moved on them intending to continue this game. She wasn't bent on killing the two-legs-hard-hides. She was a wild dragon, a creature of might, beauty and freedom, not of carnage. Only prey and those who intend to hurt her were to be killed. Only the Thirteen-Nameless had chosen to wreak carnage, thus labelling themselves no longer dragons.

In her eagerness, she didn't pay due attention to her side when a strong impact sent her rolling on the ground. Flakvira landed on her wing, slightly dislocating it. Regaining her bearings she saw two more shiny-hard-shell-two-legs, only these were much larger, standing as tall as dam Saphira-of-the-blue-glittering-scales.

One was a deep-blue, slender female standing ready to attack. The other was a bulkier, morning-sun yellow male. They both had their arms turned into pipes glowing-thunder-blue. Now Flakvira knew she was unwise to have started that game. They were the progenitors and the deep-blue-hard-shell-mother was eager to spill Flakvira's blood.

The deep-blue-hard-shell-mother advanced but halted when a torrent of fire descended from the sky, scorching the land between her and Flakvira. The young dragon arched her neck to see her salvation. Dam Saphira-of-the-blue-glittering-scales with her partner Eragon-of-human-elf-blood, riding along was the wolf-blood-elf, Blödhgarm.

The black-blue-wolf-blood-elf hurried towards her and inspected her wing. He respectfully asked her permission to heal her which Flakvira promptly allowed.

* * *

><p>Eragon had seen a great many things ever since leaving Alagaësia and founding Du Fläo abr Daburthr. Exploring the nearby lands on Saphira's back, he discovered horned wolves (which he named 'Ugralgarm'), tall running non-flight birds, lizards with giant fins on the back, and trees of all kinds of flowers and fruits.<p>

And now he had discovered giants wearing armor. At least that's what he believed he was seeing.

Saphira, him and others receive a distress feeling from Flakvir. Pain and fear. Neither he nor Saphira had never felt the young, impish dragon experience such emotions which alarmed them. Though they had lived here for 20 years now, they hardly knew all the mysteries of this land yet. Hence they suspected Flakvira had ran into some new threat.

They were right.

"Dragon's fury! What are they?" Eragon was speechless. Now he noticed the giants weren't wearing metal. They were metal! Even their faces, the expressions they had couldn't be masks. There were two giants and three human-sized. The giants appeared to be the parents and ready to fight, though they held still.

"_I do not like this, Eragon._" Saphira tasted the air with her tongue. "_Never before has been a creature whose state of mind and heart I couldn't smell. But these giants...are not natural._"

"_Their minds...are strange, alien."_ Glaedr, the golden Eldunarí that was secretly packed in Saphira's saddle advised.

Eragon knew he had to work quickly to avoid a bloodshed over a misunderstanding. He magically amplified his voice and spoke in the ancient language. "We are friends, not enemies. We mean you no harm."

The giants looked at him, proving they heard that but made no other reaction. The female touched the side of her head with a finger and moved her mouth. Her voice spoke in blips and whistles, unlike anything he had ever heard. Not even comparable to the sounds of a Ra'zac or a Werecat. Then she resumed her ready-to-fight position and did no more. Eragon repeated his phrase and again the titans made no answer, which only enervated him.

The silence was only broken by the wind, some birds flying by or the dragons growling softly. That ended when they heard a new strange sound. It was similar to that of a roaring beast, maybe a dragon. Except it was a constant, consistent rumbling. The source of the sound was, to his astonishment, two big metallic vehicles of sorts. One was a red and blue with what appeared to be a snout of sorts. The other was a smaller white and orange.

"_Flakvira is telling me...those are more progenitors._" Saphira said, her mental voice impregnated with confusion. "_I cannot understand clearly. Her emotions are as twisted as a gust of wind carrying sand._"

As if answering Saphira's predicament, parts of those metallic vehicles began to split apart, moving and shifting to different places. Soon two more giants towered, the red and blue the tallest of them all, reaching about 20 feet high with its head. Eragon could feel Saphira's owndumbstruck, as well as Blödhgarm's as well.

"_Eragon, maybe it would be wiser to retreat ourselves._" the elf-wolf spoke; after years working together they treat each other by first name now. Eragon told him to wait. The red and blue giant stepped towards them while the others remained behind. He was clearly the leader. Eragon decided to give another try.

"We are friends, not enemies. We mean you no harm."

The blue and red metal titan looked behind to the white and orange who nodded. The leader turned back to Eragon and kneeled his level.

"Likewise, we mean you no harm." the titan spoke with a deep voice in the ancient language. That immediately put Eragon's nervousness (and Saphira's) to rest. The leader of the Shur'tugal gave a quick look to Blödhgarm. The elf with black-blue fur was still astonished but his wariness had vanished. Now even he had a slight interest in these giants.

"I am Eragon Shadeslayer and this is Saphira Bjartskular." he laid a hand on Saphira's neck. "Who are you?"

"My name is Optimus Prime. We are Cybertronians, hailing from the planet Cybertron."

"But you can call us 'Autobots', for short." the white and orange smaller titan added.

"You said 'planet'?" neither Eragon nor Saphira ever heard the term before. They didn't even knew it existed in the ancient language.

"Yes." Optimus looked at him and Blödhgarm before turning back to Eragon, somewhat confused. "Have you never encountered life-forms from other worlds before?"

"No, we never even encountered anyone from other continents in the world." Eragon's response drew an upset groan from the white and orange one. But the leader Rider paid that no mind to that. A small part of his mind was tingling with excitement; one of the Eldunarí had once hinted him the possible existence of other worlds beyond the stars! Until now he had never found evidence for that theory. And now such things stood before him!

Optimus spoke again without pause.

"Now, that aside, my Autobots told me one of your creatures attacked our children." Optimus threw a look at the three small ones standing behind the blue female.

"Yes, unfortunately one of our own decided to play a game. Though I assure you it wasn't her intention to harm your children, Optimus Prime." Eragon spoke truthfully. Flakvira was wild but not bloodthirsty. "And I also assure you she will be punished accordingly for her foolishness."

Flakvira snorted at that. Next Eragon changed the subject, his curiosity getting the best of him:

"Now that aside, if you are from other world, why are you here?"

Optimus looked at him for a second before replying:

"We are here because our planet is no longer habitable and we began an exodus for the survival of our race."

That revelation hit Eragon like a fist, sending him back to the time he visited Vroengard. The former home of the Dragon Riders, poisoned so that no one, friend or foe, could ever settle there again.

"What is this war about?" at that question Optimus' eyes lightened up and the world around him began changing. They were glancing at a city of metal, with every building the size of a mountain. Eragon knew they weren't sharing a memory because he couldn't feel Optimus' mind touching his.

"_It's an illusion._" Saphira said. "_An incredibly complex illusion._"

"Our planet was once a powerful empire. Peaceful and just." Optimus spoke. "But over the eons, corruption began to settle in the higher classes and inequality took root. Until we were betrayed by Megatron."

The city changed into a smoking ruins where a top stood a gray metal titan. This one carried a look of someone who rejoices in the carnage of battle. If Eragon didn't know this Megatron was an illusion, the sight was enough to scare him into wanting to run away. Even Saphira tensed up. That titan wasn't as big as Shruikan but was nonetheless intimidating.

"Megatron and I were once allies who sought to end the corruption of our civilization. When we met with our ruling body, the High Council, Megatron threatened them and demanded to be named the next Prime."

"Prime?" Eragon asked. "As in a tittle?"

"Yes, 'Prime' is highest rank of our race. Anyway, Megatron's aggressive actions left me in shock, so I gave my own speech in favor of autonomy, and was successful. In jealousy, Megatron cut ties with me and assembled from our followers those who were only loyal to him. He made them into an army he named 'Decepticons' and began to wage a war of conquest." the image changed again, this time showing an army of violent metal titans attacking a city, Megatron on the front. "To stop him, I gathered my own followers, labeling ourselves 'Autobots'. And thus began the war that would eventually render Cybertron lifeless." and the illusions changed again. Now they were in the darkness filled with stars and two giant metal vessels were flying.

"_Humph! Like a metal monstrosity such as that could ever take to the air_." Saphira scoffed.

"We set course to this planet, fifty millennia ago, where much resources had been sent. We were engaged into battle and crash landed here, remaining dormant until now." the illusions finally disappeared.

"What happened to these 'Decepticons'?"

"They also went into exodus. Megatron had two vessels intercept us on our way here. All that we know is we all crash landed on different places of your world and Megatron was lost in the process."

Hanging on every word, Eragon couldn't stop feeling a pang of empathy. The idea of leaving your whole world and everything you know behind was all too familiar for him and Saphira. Roran, Firnen, Arya, Nasuada, Katrina and all the other friends and family.

"_Don't let your feelings cloud your minds, Eragon Kingkiller and Saphira Bjartskular._" warned Umaroth, the white Eldunarí leader of bonded dragons. His heart of the hearts was safely locked in vault of Du Fläo abr Daburthr along with all the others, but he could easily extend his mind to reach Saphira's and Eragon's. "_True as their story might be, they could still pose a threat to Alagaësia or to us._"

"_We know, wise one._" Saphira replied drily. "_But if their enemies are led by an egg-breaker warmonger, it would be wise to learn more._"

"_We will trust them once we make sure these Autobots won't harm Alagaësia. Anyways, if they are in distress, we must help them in any way we can._" Eragon added. He didn't say he was also aching to learn more about this travellers from the stars, though the dragons certainly knew that by feelings his emotions.

"Optimus, since you're strangers here we are willing to help your people. But first you must vow you and your Autobots won't threaten or endanger the people of Alagaësia" Eragon said.

"We Autobots stand for peace and never inflict harm upon the innocent. You have my word, Eragon Shadeslayer." Optimus vowed.

"_Be cautious with the winds you follow, Eragon._" Glaedr advised.

A wish occurred to Eragon and he told Saphira about it. She was at first reluctant that it would put himself in danger and it took Eragon some time to convince her. She eventually relented in the end, her own curiosity also spiked. Umaroth, Glaedr and the other elders were harder to persuade, even though Eragon reminded them Optimus made an oath. The dragons agreed just so long Eragon turned back if they lost contact with his or Saphira's mind.

"One more thing, Optimus Prime. Saphira and I would like to see where this flying vessel you told us about is here. Just to verify your claims."

"It is fair enough." Optimus agreed. He spoke to the other Autobots, telling them to take the children back to base. The other three titans transformed back into those strange vehicles and opened some kind of hatches. The children entered and closed the hatches, and the adults went away heading towards the The Shell.

"_Interesting. The progenitors have pouches to carry their younglings. That is something we never gazed in Alagaësia._" Saphira commented.

Optimus transformed too and asked for Saphira and Eragon to follow. Eragon turned to Blödhgarm and told him to retreat back to the city with Flakvira. The elf was somewhat put out for that, though he didn't protest. Though Eragon did ask him to alert everyone on Du Fläo abr Daburthr just in case:

"May the stars watch over you." and the elf broke into a run back to the city and Flakvira flew.

Saphira flew steadily and close to the ground where Optimus rode. Eragon took that moment to close his eyes to see the energy around him. He had felt some curiosity about how these creatures from the stars conserve their energy if they are wholly metal. When his mind gazed into the form of Optimus, he had feared to go blind for a foolish instant. The body of the Prime burnt like a sun with limbs! Every fiber of the Cybertronian's being was charged with more energy than he had ever seen together. Only all the strenght of the Eldunari joined could overcome that amount.

"Eragon, I do not understand" Optimus began "Why are you willing to help us?"

"Because you need help. And a Dragon Rider may never rest…" Eragon responded but Saphira finished:

"_While there are those in need of aid_."

Eragon had been sure Optimus wasn't aware of Saphira's intelligence. Whenever Saphira communicated with anyone other than Eragon, a friend or another dragon - which was very rare - those people were usually startled. But Optimus didn't slow down or displayed any reaction. Perhaps he did but his face wasn't visible now.

"I take it that was Saphira." Eragon was mentally stunned how Optimus sounded calm, like merely stating a casual fact. Even Saphira was puzzled and slightly offended at the giant's lack of reaction.

"Yes, I have to say I am taken by surprised. Most people overreact when they learn Saphira is a thinking creature."

"I have seen stranger things that were indeed sentient beings."

That declaration put Eragon is overflowing with questions and his hunger for answers was eating away at him. Years of experience taught him to tame his curiosity and have patience, for answers will come if one is willing to wait. Now that the ill first contact situation had been resolved peacefully, Eragon was eager to let his tongue loose and satiate his thirst for knowledge.

He spied many quick glances at the vehicle driving beneath them and Optimus noticed because he spoke:

"Eragon, if you have anything to say or ask, speak please."

"It is...I was wondering that, when I spoke to you for the first time, you didn't appear to understand me. Yet one moment after, you spoke in the Ancient Language like an elf."

Eragon didn't mention that but he had also noticed the white and orange giant had done something right before the Prime had spoken. Optimus answer solved Eragon's verbal and mental questions:

"My medical officer, Ratchet - the white and orange medic - had activated a translator which recorded your words and deciphered your language."

Eragon frowned in interest and gave Saphira is private opinion.

"_How useful would that have been when we were in Ellesméra learn under Oromis and Glaedr. Would have spared me days reading scrolls._"

"_Eragon,_" it was Glaedr who responded "_These Cybertronians may be able to use magic, but don't assume that's how they see or do it. If they have just learnt the Ancient Language instantaneously, something which no Riders or creature has ever done, it is obvious to assume their powers are reigned by different rules."_

"_The fact they were hatched from another world beyond our knowledge is another proof that their nature doesn't work the same way ours does. One look at their minds is enough to verify that."_ Glaedr muttered, like trying to explain that to himself. "_I took a longer glimpse of their minds, as much as I could without fearing raising suspicion. Each one appeared to be a clever, organized arrange of energy, all in perfect order like the honeycombs of bees."_

"_Does that means their minds are well trained, or is that a natural trait?_" Saphira asked.

"_That I cannot tell, Saphira._" and Glaedr kept silent again, returning to his own ponderations over the current matter.

"Eragon," Optimus called and Eragon immediately turned his attention to him. Over the years he had learnt to maintain his mind split between mental and verbal communication, whether in a fight or during a morning flight. "if you would trust me, I would like to know more about this land and your people."

Eragon knew denying that would leave Optimus a bit less willing to trust them. Until now the metal giant had told them the truth, or what they assumed to be truth. Not only would be suspicious but also discourteous. It could damage future relations between the Riders and the Cybertronians.

"_We do what we elves do; tell the truth but not the whole truth._" he thought to himself and Saphira approved. He wouldn't reveal where the Riders or the other races inhabited, though.

"Thousands of years ago, Dragons and Elves warred amongst each other over a misunderstanding. The conflict was heinous and could have destroyed either or both races. Until a young elf named Eragon found a dragon egg and raised it, naming the hatchling Bid'Daum.

"When Bid'Daum had grown strong enough, they both flew to meet the dragons and elves, who were preparing for another bloodbath. Together, they acted as emissaries between both sides. They showed dragons and elves how greater the two races were when they endeavored together, thus bringing an end to the Dragon War.

"To ensure that such carnage would never again be repeated, Eragon, Bid'Daum, the elf Queen and the leader dragon forged a bargain that would found the Shur'tugal - Dragon Riders. The bonded dragons and their riders would act as peacekeepers between the two races. But as centuries passed, the Shur'tugal gained power and prestige, thus becoming peacekeepers between all the races of Alagaësia. When humans arrived, they joined the Riders, who already served as diplomats, scholars and healers in what was called the Golden Age."

"You mean this planet possesses several sentient races?"

"Aye, and many more may exist throughout the world. Is it not normal?"

"Most planets that generate sentient life only have one dominant species. Some may have two or even three. But I never saw so many races on the same world." Optimus then asked. "What species are you, Eragon?"

"I am human. Or rather, I was born human. But through events I'm not about to reveal yet, my life shaped me into what I am today; a mix of human and elf." Eragon wasn't about to entrust him with too much information and thus thought wiser to change the subject. "Blödhgamr is an elf, and there are Shur'tugal of all races now."

"Interesting. Though in all honesty I am more intrigued concerning dragons. Saphira's race is not totally unfamiliar to me. Arcee - the blue femme that you saw - communicated me the children were attacked by what appeared to be an 'organic predacon'."

"A predacon?" Eragon was the one who asked, but Saphira was likewise interested.

"When Cybertron was young and before our race existed, its metal plains and mountain were dominated by a race of flying, fire-breathing giant predators, dubbed Predacons. Their body shape resembles Saphira's. But like us, they were made of metal alloys."

"_Dragons made of metal! How could they take flight?_"

"From what he managed to learn by studying their ancient remains, it would appear so. They were quite suited for aerial combat, despite their large proportions and weight." Optimus' response made Saphira's turn to be overflowing with questions. Though she was better than Eragon at hiding her avid curiosity.

Optimus drove between the mountains on a road of recently pounded dirt. The other Autobot had rode there before, already making way in spite of only recently awakening from a millennia slumber. They came into a narrow valley and in the center was a large hole. The parallel tracks made by wheels carried on inside.

"_Flakvira revealed this place to me. She had been here before finding the metal children._" Saphira sniffed the inside of the whole. "_It could be burrow of the largest rabbit in existence if I didn't know better._"

Optimus transformed and walked down the tunnel. Eragon and Saphira exchanged a look before following. It was dark and moist and Optimus lightened four beacons in his chest to clear the way.

"_Why haven't you used magic to enlighten our path?_" Saphira asked.

"I'm not comfortable to expose all our skills just yet."

"_Hm, good to know caution reigns more than curiosity._" she retorted with a hint of amusement.

After a two-minute walk, during which rider and dragon had sword, mind, claws and fangs subtly ready to battle any possible treachery, the trio came against a wall of metal. Optimus put a finger to the side of his head, similar to the blue female Arcee had done before. The wall vertically split into two and the two halves moved aside like curtains being pulled apart to open a window.

"_It's a doorway._" Eragon concluded. The doors dragged themselves and gave sight to a bright metal corridor, even more spacious than the tunnel. What caught Eragon's attention were the more towering metal giants awaiting from the other side. There was the healer, Ratchet, Optimus had identified and many others. The sight was astounding but exhilarating! This day was one for the Domia abr Wyrda, the book of history that Eragon had been offered by Jeod Longshanks.

"Metal giants! Saphira, burn me to see if I'm dreaming."

* * *

><p>The hardest part of writing this was the perspective of a dragon on things, especially a thing said dragon had never seen before. Thank <strong>Paolini<strong> he wrote pov of **Saphira** and **Glaedr** in the **Brisingr** book.


	3. Perspectives

This chapter includes a bit of **science **which is good but I kept it resumed not to bore you. The Autobots begin to reveal a few secrets of the Universe for the Dragon Riders. It contains a more detailed, grimmer version of the war for Cybertron. Major characters are introduced on the **Inheritance Cycle** side. Don't worry because more **Autobots** will come later. And we finally get word of the **Decepticons**.

* * *

><p><strong>METAL GIANTS<strong>

**Perspectives**

It was late night when Saphira landed gracefully at the border of the forest that grew between river Edda and the plateau where Du Fläo abr Daburthr stood. The Edda river, which Eragon and the elves had sailed 23 years ago on the long white ship, ended in an expanse lake at the edgeof the forest. It had been on this same spot they made camp, after leaving Alagaësia and before exploring the plateau that had become their home.

"_Here we are, little one. As we were what seems a lifetime ago._" Saphira spoke with a pang of nostalgia that Eragon shared even without their bond. This had been the place where they finally had left Alagaësia behind, after three days of sailing down the river.

"_Aye, and it was only twenty-three years._" he replied with the same tone.

Twenty-three years ago, after making camp and moored the ship in a makeshift port, Saphira and him flew above the plateau to examine it. Much to the dismay of Blödhgarm and the other elves who wanted to accompany them for security motives. Eragon decided to take some Eldunarí, including Glaedr, appease their concerns then.

After flying over the plateau for hours, discovering it to be fertile and teeming with life-forms they hadn't seen before, such as the Urgralgarm. They settled in the center of the plateau, a place was hard to reach without flying and began building the foundations of Du Fläo adr Daburthr.

Over the years of raising young dragons and training new riders, Eragon discovered a new calling. He recalled what Arya had once told him when they were secretly crossing the Empire - '_Eventually, this war will end, and you will see that your duties encompass more than violence. The Riders were not just warriors, they were teachers, healers and scholars.'_ - Eragon discovered he loved teaching just as much as he loved learning. He's prone to ask questions, a trait that Glaedr considered qualifying in someone who teaches. To see his students rising and meeting their obstacles and trials with his instruction, gave Eragon a reason to smile proudly.

One other good thing is the shadows of the past, the men he slew in the battlefield, who many times visited him in dreams, had disappeared over time. The leader Rider was grateful for his life no longer spinning around killings and bloodshed.

As for Saphira, she had grown into quite the dedicated, stern mother. Ironically, none of the dragons or eggs were her hatchlings but she was the matriarch of them all. Even the wild dragons, who recognize no authority, respected her for her jovial might and the battles she fought to set her race free from the traitorous egg-breaker.

Rider and dragon had left Alagaesia melancholic for the life left behind; but they found a new one raising the new generations.

"_Sometimes its sad to see an end._" Eragon sighed, taking a sip of faelnirv and savoring the taste of mulled cider mixed with mead. Saphira and he came to this place to remember the beginning of their new journey. Soon after unseating Galbatorix, a daunting task that always seemed to be their destiny, a new mountain stood before them waiting to be conquered too.

"_Ends are always depressive, except the ends of all things bad for earth. And end means the old rules that we know no longer apply. That is why many people fear change when they shouldn't._" Saphira commented in her so-familiar wisdom. Then she added in a more relaxed demeanour. "_You could have brought some faelnirv for me."_

"_Saphira, the last time you brought faelnirv for you, it was an entire barrel of the strongest. Afterwards you made me promise to never bring faelnirv for you on any of our night flights._" Eragon recollected the day. The effects of that beverage made Saphira roar mentally to everyone who would hear her in a eloquent singing poem of the war against Galbatorix. Eragon and the other disciples found it extremely amusing, the elves in particular applauded her art, the dragons outright ignored her, and Saphira cursed herself after the effect expired.

"_Hmm, don't remind me._"

They remained in mental peace, the silence of the night broken occasionally by nocturnal birds chirping and Urgralgarms, the horned-wolves, howling. Saphira had been raised in the wilds, during the journeys with Eragon and Brom. Later she was trained under the tutelage of Glaedr in Du Weldenvarden. She was a creature who felt at home in the most loneliest of wilderness, just so long her partner-of-mind-and-heart was with her.

Then something tickled the scales around her nostrils. There was a presence close by, a powerful sentient one. Eragon could feel it too; the roots, the animals and the wind whispering on the branches told them of the alien presence nearby. It was one of the Autobots, undoubtedly.

Squinting his night sightful eyes, Eragon could glimpse the polygonal shape of Optimus Prime in vehicle mode. The truck was standing by an elevated rocky margin of the Edda, seemingly watching the stars. It almost appeared as if Optimus was part of the rock, so silent and still he was. Eragon even wondered if the giant was asleep, so he tapped his mind into him:

"_Optimus-vodhr?_" Eragon used the elf honorificused to address a respectable elder.

"_I am awaken, Eragon._" the response was devoid of emotion, not upset for the intrusion. It was something the Rider had noticed between the two weeks since first contact with the Autobots. Apparently, while they could all communicate mentally, none of them could express their emotional state or share memories through that. The aliens were, however, intrigued about the natives' ability to speak mentally with each other.

"_I only intended to verify how you were._"

"_I often engage in solitary contemplation after patrol, whenever I am able to."_

"_Would you mind if we joined you?_"

"_Not at all._" Eragon climbed into Saphira by her foreleg and she leaped into a short flight and landed a few meters behind the truck, in a clearing by the river. Eragon athletically jumped out of the saddle into the ground.

"Good evening, Optimus-vodhr." mental speech was no longer needed. "How are your people settling in?"

"We are fine, thanks to the assistance of your disciples." the Autobots knew very little of this new world so the Riders often advised and accompanied the Autobots out of their base, instructing them on every new subject they met. So far, Eragon had advised Optimus to not allow his soldiers to move west, where Alagaesia was. He knew Nasuada, Arya, Orik and all the others weren't ready to encounter giants.

Thinking of his foster brother, the dwarf king Orik, reminded Eragon of an old topic they spoke of, when Saphira and they were in Ellesméra. The dwarf had mumbled about Giants and Eragon replied if they existed, it had to be somewhere faraway from Alagaësia. He was right! Now giants of metal from the stars and they brought their eon-long war with them.

The war…

"Have you by any chances discovered any signs of your enemies?"

"Not a trace. Though I wouldn't assume they are not here. We still must scout the other continents of your planet. With the _Ark_ buried and crippled as it is, it will never fly again. That makes our task doubly hard."

"_I am still skeptical that such large vessel could take flight, especially without proper wings to flap._" Saphira scoffed, expelling a puff of smoke through her nostrils.

"Do not be so hasten to judge, Saphira. The line that separates the possible from the impossible is an imaginary and ever-changing one." Optimus retorted patiently. "We define what is impossible as that which we don't believe that can be accomplished because we never saw it. Everything is possible, one way or another."

"My master Oromis said once there's more than one way to every goal. Some of the paths just have not been discovered yet." Eragon added, sharing Optimus' opinion. He remembered the subject he thought about earlier and decided to ask the Autobot leader:

"I had a thought a while ago. When I speak mentally to any dragon or rider, I can always get an impression of their emotions. But you or any other Autobot, your minds are as blank as a message written on paper, your mental answers devoid of feelings. Given your species can feel emotions, do you have any idea why?"

Optimus didn't reply right away. For about five seconds he remained silent until he transformed and looked at Eragon. Despite the dark, the rider could tell the cybertronian was ponderatif.

"We are species from different world, Eragon. There could be many reasons, though I believe it could because...the conscience of one of my race doesn't reside totally in the processor."

"Processor?"

"I believe your term is...'brain'. The processor works as the memory bank and our rational, analytical thoughts." Optimus pointed to his own helmet head. He then rested the hand on his chest. "We have a vital organ in our chest that contains our life force and our emotions. We call it a spark."

"I see." Eragon saw a slight similarity between that and the heart of the hearts. That gave him another thought. "Can you survive without a spark? If it is removed but undamaged?"

"No, why would you think that?" Optimus questioned.

"Just curiosity." the human avoided given a direct lie. He had no inclination to dwell on the subject of the heart of the hearts.

"You are curious." the giant noted. "I told you once; if you have anything to say or ask, speak please."

"I can't understand that…" Eragon chose his phrasing carefully. "I mean no offense, but if you are such an old race, how can you be at war with your own kind? How can a species so old have not outgrown corruption and tyranny? I can't see the elves going through that and they're not as old as you."

"There is an expression 'never improve upon perfection'. Our ancestors followed this policy and I believe it was our undoing. I learnt that much during my early years as an archivist." Optimus sighed. "Our species is more or less 900 million years old. During the first 800, we advanced our civilization at different paces. For some occasions we made mistakes that could have destroyed our species but wiser minds reigned and he became stronger for it. Eventually we reached the stars, explored the Universe and met other races and worlds. It was the Golden Age for our species.

"About 100 million years ago, we reached what our ancestors believed to the peak of our evolution. That we had learnt everything there was to know and dominated all aspects of science. This was not exactly truthful, given there is always something to learn out there." Optimus pointed to the sky. Eragon remained entangled in the narration, even Saphira was hearing. "In short, our ancestors thought we had achieved perfection. Thus they decided to maintain it, freeze it so it would never again descend into something lesser. We cut off all ties with our friends and allies from other worlds and removed our presence from the stars. This policy of isolationism was the first step for the end of the Golden Age."

"When you shut yourself off from the world, you prevent yourself from experiencing new lessons." Eragon whispered wisely.

"Yes. We told ourselves we had learnt all the lessons; that proved how little we knew." Optimus proceeded to explain about the caste system - when a Cybertronian was born, he or she was assigned a caste to follow once they evolved into adults. "Afterwards, more conservationist**, **obsolete laws were passed, every millenia. First, once a Cybertronian had chosen a caste, they were to be part of it forever with no right to change. no one could leave the caste they had chosen and were force to serve in it forever. Next, the children were assigned into the castes soon after being born, rather than being allowed to choose their path.

"This caused some dissatisfaction among some castes and small rebellions burst. The High Council shut them off quickly. Unfortunately, the rebellions actually convinced them to pass even stricter laws. As millions of years passed, some castes began to lose rights and inequality settled in. The lowest of the lowest were nothing more than slaves."

"Say no more, please." Eragon muttered. That had left him with a bitter taste in his throat. One thing he truly despised was slavery. When Saphira, he and Brom were hunting the Ra'zac, they came into Dras-Leona where the market of slaves was in business. Memories surfaced from that day over twenty-three years ago. The one ridiculed man he had wished to save with magic, the little girl who was separated from her family. In the end, Eragon had with great pleasure released all the slaves when the Varden took the city and Nasuada declared slavery illegal and punishable by death when she became High Queen.

"_Is that how your species turned so simple-minded?_" Saphira questioned, lazily.

"Saphira!" Eragon chided.

"Simple-minded?" Optimus didn't sound offended at all.

"_The Autobots don't have the personalities I would expect from creatures with millions of years of experience. At best, I would give them a century or two old."_ her blue eyes focused on the Prime. "_Though you, Optimus, seem to be the exception._"

Eragon had to agree with that. He had met a handful of Autobots such as Ratchet, Bumblebee and Arcee. Their speech, philosophies weren't a strange embrangle of life lessons that made the personalities of ancient elves and dragons so strange. The exception was the elven smith Rhunön, the oldest living of her kin. She, unlike other younger elves, spoke plainly and hated riddles. Eragon had always assumed it had been because she was alive even before the Shur'tugal were formed, or because of her dedication to her profession and nothing more, for millennia.

"I understand your meaning, Saphira. My mentor, Alpha Trion, was an elder even before the end of the Golden Age. During the Golden Age any Cybertronian could enter a new caste if he felt it was the calling of their spark. One could stay a worker for centuries, millennia or millions of years before losing interest and changing into a scientist, for example. By the time the High Council imposed the law that forbade that, Alpha Trion had lived and served many roles: a warrior, a healer, a scholar, and explorer and finally and historian.

"My Autobots and I have grown and worked in the castes we were assigned since birth. That limited our life-styles greatly, thus limiting our experiences."

"You know," Eragon put in his opinion. "the more I hear about the status of your civilization, the more I believe this war was inevitable. Your High Council were so desperate to protect your species perfection from the outside, they rottened it from within."

"Yes, I suppose they succeeded in their goal; our race didn't fall to an outside threat." Optimus' sigh released sorrow, a rare display of emotion from the titan. Then he turned back and transformed "Now I must take my leave. Have a good evening."

"Good evening, Optimus." Eragon bid and the truck drove off into the night.

"_He avoided answering my question completely._" Saphira noted. "_He did not reveal why he's different from the rest of his kind. He's actually wise for his age._"

"There is more to him than meets the eye." Eragon opined. "Optimus doesn't trust us yet to reveal every secret he has. Why would he?"

"_Yet his spirit is to be admired._" that comment from Saphira surprised him. She rarely commended anyone. "_His world is gone, his race is scattered but his fire still burns like a flame in the pitch black of the cold night._"

"_I don't know if I could do the same._" Eragon kept that thought hidden even from Saphira. The idea of losing everything he held dear: his brethren, his city... _Saphira_. He didn't ponder over the unknown future, but one thing was certain; one day he would be separated from his dragon. The thought of losing her, to keep living without the being that shared his mind, horrified him. The experience Glaedr went through after Oromis' demise was dauntingly grim and Eragon didn't want to find out if he could go through it.

A new mental presence pulled him out of those thoughts. It was Umaroth, the Eldunarí leader, who had listened to the conversation:

"_Let this be a lesson to you, younglings. To all of us. No matter how high you may be able to fly, the fall will be even deadlier. Even giants crumble and the bigger they are, the harder they fall. What happened to the Cybertronians - their world dead and their race scattered - could happen to any of ours one day._"

* * *

><p>Herin Sonulsson flew on his dragon, Darverg, into a resting place on one of the mountains of the Shell. It was a clear night with not one cloud visible. The human Rider wanted to catch up on his stellar mapping. Herin had always loved the stars. Since he was a child growing up in Narda, he used to watch the night sky from his old home. When he was eleven, Darverg hatched for him and his life changed forever. He was the first human rider to be chosen into the resurrected order. After over twenty years of training, both grown man and dragon were recently graduated.<p>

One of Herin's greatest passions while learning under Eragon and Saphira had been astronomy. Darverg-of-the-dark-scales loved to explore and the night, when he could camouflage with ease. Their recent duties had been to watch over a ship that would cross the Boar's Eye, the monstrous maelstrom between the islands Beirland and Nia. Now they had returned to Du Fläo Daburthr.

"This is the place, Sungaze." Herin announced.

The erisdar - the lantern that gave light with no fire - he carried illuminated the trio with a cozy, warm light. It was a steady source of illumination unlike dragon fire, perfect for a night study. Sungaze, the tiny golden-brown jet transformed into the youngest protoform.

Sungaze had a great interest in astronomy, his guardian Perceptor taught him much though Ratchet also gave him lessons once in a while. Due to the ill-fated first contact between Windshield and Flakvira, Sungaze was fearful of dragons.

A week before, Herin and Darverg had come into contact with Autobots, they met Sungaze and Herin spoke with the protoform. After exchanging some words and discovering their interest in astronomy were mutual, Herin introduced him to Darverg. To say the protoform had courage was an understatement; given how much bigger Darverg was compared to Flakvira.

Sungaze, being taught and raised by a scientific genius, knew much about the outside of the world. Knowledge that Herin and Darverg craved to learn.

"That is Cybertron." Sungaze pointed to a dim star, barely noticeable. The man drew in his uncomplete star map. "The place rotates distantly around an ancient white star."

"What about space itself? What is in-between the world? How far are they from each other?" Herin asked.

"There's empty space and there's millions of miles of distance between us and Cybertron. To be honest, miles is too small of a measurement for it." Sungaze asked in return. "You never had experience with space, haven't you?"

It was Darverg who answered that:

"_Once an old dragon and his rider attempted to fly higher than the sky. They had soared above the clouds for many times and wanted to see what was above that. Using a complex series of spells to shield themselves, they accomplished the deed. What they saw that they was never what they expected._"

"They reached space, didn't they?" Darverg snorted at Sungaze's interruption but gave no harsh response and continued:

"_They reached a plane of existence cold, dark and empty that for a while they fought they passed beyond the void of death. They saw the world beneath them is round and realized they had succeeded; they were above the sky and out of the world. Hence they named the place 'The Outer Void'. This void was darkness and emptiness marked with stars and the sun. The Outer Void had no air, it was cold enough to freeze hot blood and bone marrow, and most surprising of all, the sun was giving out a poisonous, blinding light and their wards would exhausted them if they remained for long._"

"_That_ is definitely space. It's empty so it has no air, no pressure. Since space is so vast, the energy is spread thin, thus making it so cold. And the 'poisoning light' is the harmful radiation from the sun." Sungaze clarified.

"The sun emits noxious heat?" Herin was intrigued "The light of the sun never caused harm to the land, that I know of."

"Because your planet is shielded." the protoform pointed up to the starry dark blanket that was the sky. "To put simply, up above there's a layer of particles that take the hits of harmful radiation like a shield, and let only harmless rays pass."

"Amazing!" Herin took hastened notes in his book with a clean, speedy calligraphy."It sounds almost unbelievable that a system so perfect could exist to ensure life would thrive."

"What do you mean?" Sungaze asked.

"I'm saying that…" Herin paused in his writing, trying to find words. "Space has so many hazards yet the world is perfectly shielded from all of them, it almost makes me wonder if there really isn't an almighty super-being that architected all of this."

"I once asked the same question." Sungaze said. "If the system wasn't perfect, life wouldn't thrive as it has, and you wouldn't be here to ask that question. Besides, there are ways the system could be destroyed, so it's not perfect."

Herin and Darverg know he means the way his world was destroyed. In Cybertronian terms, Sungaze was a very young child. For a few times the Rider forgot he was as old as himself. Sungaze was about twenty years old, making him an adult among humans. Yet he was still a child among his kind.

In the beginning, Herin was puzzled that the protoform spoke of his abandoned dead world with such innocence. Herin had asked whether he missed his home, and the protoform's answer was that he spent his very short life studying in shelters. He, Windshield and Flare Up and the others never lived to see much.

"_He is a child of war._" Darverg sighed privately to his partner.

* * *

><p>"Perceptor, once a dragon told me that everything that seemed solid was mostly empty. I never comprehended its meaning. I tried for many time to decipher the meaning of the riddle from different angles, but with no result." Eragon was in the Autobot base. As leader of the Shur'tugal and trusted ally, he was allowed there. He often came to talk with the chief Autobot scientist, Perceptor <strong>(FOC)<strong>, who was more than happy to converse with the curious Rider. He carried a red and gray armor with a shoulder-mounted scope.

"That dragon was correct, my young friend." Perceptor spoke in a rich voice. "What is the material world made of?"

"Of physical matter." Eragon knew the answer was rather obvious but it was the best he could think of. Valdr, the oldest of the Eldunarí that shared that knowledge with Eragon, never gave a better explanation to his sense that everything that seemed solid was mostly empty.

"All the matter in the Universe - be it solid, liquid or gas - is composed of miniscule particles, so small that your sight can't see them. These particles are called atoms. An atom is composed of a core called nucleus and a number of electrons that revolves around the nucleus."

Eragon got the vision of a circle of vulture flying in perfect circle around a rotting carcass.

"The electrons revolve around in a cloud that makes, in terms that you can understand, the shell of the atom. However, this cloud isn't solid; it is but a storm of those electrons spinning around the nucleus."

"And that is why what seems solid is mostly empty!" Eragon concluded with the tone of someone who discovered a fortune that had been hiding right in front of him. Perceptor chuckled a bit:

"Rather ironic, I know. Even a solid rock, our own bodies are mostly empty space. This proves that what lies around us is rarely what it appears at first sight. This is what science exists for: to discover all the answers."

"It is an eternal quest." Eragon noted.

"Quite right, but one I find worthy of dedicating my short life to." Perceptor turned to his work table and continued to input a sort of complex calculations in cybertronian. If it were anyone else, Eragon would abstain his quizzing to allow them to work. But Perceptor had made clear on their first conversation that Eragon was always welcomed to ask him whatever he wanted. The scientist was intrigued to learn more about this world, just as Eragon was to learn about Cybertron and the Autobots.

"Why do you consider your life short? As I understand, your species doesn't perish by old age and your are mostly immune to the weaknesses of the flesh. You yourself have lived for millions of years."

"To be honest, Eragon, I see individual life as too short to get all the answers. I have lived for a good 30 million and in that time I haven't learnt all the answers. I doubt anyone ever will. Even if you were to learn everything about the world that surrounds you, there will always exist greener pastures to explore."

"Aye, I've learnt that more than once." Eragon sighed. Since the day Eragon left Palancar Valley with Brom and Saphira, his vision of the world expanded with every new discovery and new journey. It amused him at times of how small he had once thought the world was. The most recent discovery was the arrival of this new race from the stars. His idea of the world changed radically like never before.

"Eragon, may I ask you something?" Perceptor didn't take his optics from his work.

"Certainly."

"When you left your home village, did you believed in magic?"

"No. We always heard about it in Brom's stories and we thought that was just what magic was. Stories. In fact, many of your Autobots are still reluctant to believe, Ratchet chief among them." when Eragon and Saphira first came aboard, the Rider marvelled at the technology surrounding him and asked what kind of magic it was. To his surprised the Autobots never had any experience with magic. They didn't believe it real until Eragon demonstrated the spell 'Brisingr'.

"You told me that magic is the manipulation of energy." Perceptor paused. "Do you consider what we Cybertronians do magic?"

"Yes, though Ratchet insists otherwise."

"Then maybe we do in fact perform magic. We can ignite objects, levitate heavy solids through thin air and do many other deeds that you can equally perform with magic. Our technology revolves around manipulation of energy, in some way or another."

"So you are saying it is all the same thing, just in different ways and with different names." Eragon sighed. "Another discovery that rearranges the mind and changes everything that was known and certain before."

Perceptor grinned at that like a child given a treat.

"Exactly, my friend! That is what science is all about! As a scientist, I am eager to find the answer of how magic works from a scientific point of view. When I witnessed your display of magic, I had to drop everything I thought I knew to begin understanding magic. That is how science works. It's never definitive, set in stone. What todays is accepted as a true theory may tomorrow be proved wrong. Until I have met you, I never believed organics could manipulate energy. In fact, before I awoke and learnt of this world, I never thought several different races could co-exist in the same world."

"Then I suppose this has been an educative experience for you." Eragon retreated to the exit. "I must be going now. Have a nice day, Perceptor."

"Likewise. The next time you may want to inform me better on how the Rider Thuviel caused the 'air poisoning' of Vroengard. I would like to discern that process."

"I will." Eragon bowed respectfully and walked out. Whatever thoughts he had of what he had learnt todays were evaporated when a loud, acute sound that repeated itself over and over. A red light flashed in accordance with the sound.

"It's the intruder alert!" Perceptor was startled. "Someone has broken in. It's very close."

In a hurry the scientist left the room with care not to step on Eragon. The Rider quickly climbed through a ladder onto the walkways running through the length of every corridor and room of the _Ark._ These were used for the protoforms, the Cybertronian children, to move around the base. Eragon raced behind Perceptor, his evolved stamina and speed allowing him to keep up with the giant without sweating. The floor trembled with every titanic metal step and it got worse when more Autobots came to locate the intruder.

Eragon wondered who or what could it be. Maybe one of the wild dragons foolishly tried to find their way in, on a whim? After seeing what powers the Autobots possessed, he guessed they would have ways to keep intruders away. Perhaps they never devised ways of keeping tiny creatures such as the two-legged races of Alagaësia out. This was, after all, a new world for them.

He came into a different room with three Autobots gathered around something he couldn't see. It took a few seconds to recognized them as Prowl **(WFC)**, Jazz **(WFC)** and Cliffjumper **(TF Prime)**. Perceptor joined them, confused that the soldiers were just standing there.

"...So you see, toads don't exist because the toad I was holding never existed. It was actually a frog."

"The frag!? That doesn't even make sense." Cliffjumper protested confused..

Eragon hadn't heard that female voice since his exodus from Alagaësia. It was rich in energy and buoyancy. He climbed down the ladder to meet the human intruder surrounded by the Autobots. This human was a Rider and yet displayed no fear of the towering giants of metal. Dressed in a green and black metal-like armor, covered by a red cape there stood Angela, the herbalist.

"Angela? How did you get in here?"

"Hello, Eragon. I have heard the Autobots had woken up from their millennia long sleep so I thought it would be intriguing to pay a visit. After all I did promised I would come over to visit you, so I figured why not pay a visit to both. Call it killing two Decepticons with one stone. Ah! How very _wise_ of me!"

"Eragon," Perceptor turned to him. "Do you know her?"

"Aye. She's an old friend...and a living enigma with legs." Eragon spoke bluntly, knowing Angela would take no offense. "How did you get in here?"

"I could tell you of how this giant hunk of metal inhabited by giants is bound to have holes and crevices where I can crawl through, but I am not interested in revealing my sources. Besides, I do like watching your face while you think about my so-called enigmas. You look like a squirrel choking on a large nutt it accidently swallowed."

"_Nothing has changed about her._" Eragon sighed mentally. A part of him actually had missed her comments.

"Where isSolembum?"

"Not with me. He doesn't like Cybertronians, Autobot or Decepticon alike."

Eragon turned to Perceptor who had remained quiet during the exchange, as had the other three.

"You didn't tell her of your species or you war, have you?"

"Of course not. We just found her." it was Cliffjumper, the red one with relatively tiny angle-curved horns.

"She always gets the information she seeks. That's one of her specialties." Eragon shrugged. Angela turned to the puzzled Autobots and flashed a smirk:

"Something you should know about me. I'm always where the interesting happens."

* * *

><p>Another day on the buried <em>Ark<em>, Optimus entered the communications central where Ratchet was fixing the mainframe with a series of tools. One glowing energon cube rested beside him.

"Is it ready Ratchet?" Optimus asked his friend.

"Right about now." the Autobot medic answered, transforming his arm into a welding torch. "The communications relay took some damage in the crash but I think it's finally repaired."

Ratchet placed the energon cube into a container to feed the computer. He sighed in relief when the machine responded and powered up.

"We have plenty of energy to send a message into deep space. Thank Primus we crashed by a major energon supply." the Ark would never fly again due to its damage and the time it remained buried. It would be a disgrace for the stranded Autobots, but fortune had smiled upon them for beneath the mountains of the Shell nearby was a great vein of crystal energon. Though it was enough to feed the band of Cybertronians for a few stellar cycles, Optimus knew their situation was precarious for they would eventually ran out.

Eragon and his Shur'tugal had offered their intelligence on this land but insisted that the rest of the continent to west was off-limits for the natives there were not ready to behold the aliens. A sentiment Optimus understood and kept his word. But he knew that sooner or later they would have to scout the rest of this planet in search of other cells of resources and their enemies. If they were still here and alive.

And for that, Optimus would have to gather all his soldiers who had been scattered by the exodus. He just hoped the Autobot army hadn't been lost due to his millenia-long absence. He prayed to Primus that his race still lived one, even if spread throughout the Universe.

"Please, let this work." he silently prayed before stepping up to the controls. The relays would send out his message into space, encrypted in codes that only Autobots would be able to crack "This is Optimus Prime and I send this message to any surviving Autobots taking refuge among the stars. We, the crew of the _Ark_, still live. Hope still lives. If you are hearing this message, we await for you to join us in the planet of the following coordinates. We have allied ourselves with a peacekeeping order named 'Dragon Riders' who shares our belief in freedom. Remember my fellow Autobots, hope still lives. 'Till all are one!"

Optimus closed the signal and broadcasted in every Autobot frequency. All they could do now is hope for the best. He turned to the medic and saw him string slightly down. Something was disturbing Ratchet and Optimus felt it wasn't just the present situation:

"Is something troubling you, old friend?"

"Optimus, more than ever the future seems uncertain and confuse." Ratchet lamented with a tired sigh. "We've been in stasis for thousands of stellar cycles and we don't know anything of what has happened. Does Cybertron still exists? Are Autobots still surviving out there? We could very well be the last ones of our race.

"Furthermore, we are stranded in a planet that completely confounds the mind." Ratchet referred to several aspects like the existence of multiple sentient races, intelligent organic predacons that could communicate telepathically, and the so-called magic. Ratchet was a scientist and thus, skeptical to the existence of anything supernatural. Until Eragon displayed his abilities much to the medic's shock.

While most Autobots were impressed and awed by the powers of the Riders and their dragons, Ratchet felt more lost than ever. First, it was just the future that seemed uncertain. And now so does the present.

"Nothing is the same anymore. But we must adapt if we are to survive." Optimus sighed.

* * *

><p>Many light-years away from Earth, the humongous Decepticon warship <em>Obliterator<em> glided peacefully in the darkness. For millennia, its crew had contacted and commandeered several Decepticon cells all over the Universe. With the disappearance of both Megatron and Optimus Prime, the death of Cybertron and the massive planetary exodus, the war was unoficially over. What they had fought for was dead and gone. Still that didn't stop the Decepticons from attacking any Autobot ship or colony they found. What had once been a mighty, ancient race was now reduced to a spread thin species of scavengers.

Into the command deck entered Soundwave **(TF Prime)**, the ever silent chief of communications of the ship. Soundwave was a slender, dark purple figure that inspired uneasiness to everyone. His reputation was that of a strong, experienced warrior in hand-to-hand combat, second only to Megatron. Soundwave was never a 'Con of many words and after the Exodus he took a vow of silence. This added to his face being masked by a vizor made Soundwave even more feared and creepy.

"Soundwave, what news do you bring me?" asked the ship's commander, Starscream **(TF Prime)**. He was originally the second-in-command of the Decepticons and when Megatron was presumed dead 50 millennia ago, he crowned himself 'Lord Starscream', even though no one actually called him as such. Starscream himself is a slender, white figure but unlike Soundwave, he was always more loyal to his own agenda than to Megatron.

For a long time, Starscream had hoped Megatron would disappeared so he could take charge. And at the Exodus that wish became reality. Though it was a bittersweet victory for Cybertron was dead and the Decepticon army scattered. Starscream spent the next 50 thousand years searching and recruiting them back, though most had given hope when they learnt Megatron was no more, and refused to serve Starscream.

"Well?" the commander turned to the masked Decepticon who played a message. Several days ago, Soundwave intercepted a message coming in Autobot frequency. The silent spymaster cracked the encryption after some effort.

"_This is Optimus Prime and I send this message to any surviving Autobots taking refuge among the stars._"

"Optimus Prime!" Starscream shrieked astonished.

"_We, the crew of the Ark, still live. Hope still lives. If you are hearing this message, we await for you to join us in the planet of the following coordinates. We have allied ourselves with a peacekeeping order named 'Dragon Riders' who shares our belief in freedom. Remember my fellow Autobots, hope still lives. 'Till all are one!_"

"So the Prime and his accursed Autobots still live." Starscream noted, scratching his long talons. The commander flashed a wide smirk. "How fitting that we have uncovered the trail of those cowards. For now I, Lord Starscream, will command my loyal army of Decepticons into battle to eradicate our foes forever, in our fallen leader's memory!"

Soundwave looked unfazed on the outside but inside he was sneering. Starscream was all talk; he liked to arrogantly preen himself a mighty leader but he would never reach a tenth of what Megatron was worth.

"Now, where has this message originated from?" the commander questioned. Soundwave's vizor showed the image of a planet and its coordinates. Starscream's smirk faltered when the information clicked in his mind. "Wait, isn't this the planet Megatron chased the Autobots to? The planet where he fell?"

Soundwave's only response was a curt nod but it was enough to aggravate the self-proclaimed Lord of the Decepticons. Starscream knew well that if Optimus Prime survived that ill-fated journey, Megatron probably did too. The old warlord was a survivor. And if there was even the slightest chance he lived on that planet, Starscream would turn the _Obliterator_ in the opposite direction.

But there was no turning back now. He had announced boastfully he would meet the Autobots on that planet. Soundwave remained quiet as ever yet inwardly he was smirking as the commander caught himself in his own trap. Ah, Starscream, you are the embodiment of both arrogance and ignorance.

"Very well, activate the spacebridge drive and lock on those coordinates." the ordered with a tone of reluctance. Starscream just hoped Megatron was indeed dead and stood as such.

A vortex of green and blue was tore-open and the _Obliterator_ dove into it. To Earth.

The chief of communications retreated himself to ponder. One part of the message still intrigued him. He played it again:

"..._We have allied ourselves with a peacekeeping order named 'Dragon Riders' who shares our belief in freedom…"_

Who are these Dragon Riders? Were they a force to be reckoned with or not? If they were Prime's allies, rather than protegees, then they had to be a dangerous foe. Though Soundwave doubted Starscream would take it seriously if he reported this fact to him. He decided that, as soon as they arrived, he would gather intelligence on these 'Dragon Riders', if opportunity presented itself.

* * *

><p>The was supposed to be a scene of<strong> Ismira<strong> - Roran and Katrina's daughter - and her dragon Luana with **Arcee**. But I may leave that for a later chapter. And sorry if **Perceptor** is OOC.


	4. Battle for Farthen Dûr PART I

"_**italic"**_ is used for mind/electronic communication or thoughts. This chapter finally introduces a bit of **Du Fläo adr Daburthr**, but not all of it yet.

* * *

><p><strong>METAL GIANTS<strong>

**Battle for Farthen Dûr PART I**

The three Autobots, Cliffjumper **(TF Prime)**, Prowl **(WFC)** and Jazz **(WFC)**, were driving to the plane area that separated the south arm of the Shell and the Beor Mountains. Optimus Prime wanted the surrounding areas scouted for any signs of Decepticons having crash landed there. There was the theory that Megatron fell in this same continent.

"So what you think of the our newest neighbors?" began Cliffjumper, the bright and proud red one. Cliffjumper was known to be a conversationalist and a leap-before-looking soldier, as his own name indicated.

"Hm, the Riders are okay. Some stiff, some need to loosen up, but they're alright. I like the elves songs, nice tunes. Not much of a punch in the sound, but great. Now the dragons...you've seen one dragon, you've seen 'em all." Jazz carried the light gray with blue stripes of a race car. He was cool and collected and shared a friendship with Optimus Prime that pre-dates the war. Jazz has an open-mind and an interest in culture.

"I figured you'd be more helm over wheels for the big lizards. They're like organic, intelligent predacons. You love that kind of weird stuff." Cliffjumper commented.

"Yo Cliff, you know that blue dragocon Saphira?"

"Eragon's dragon?"

"That's her. Let's just say we had a...disagreement." Jazz muttered the last word like chewing a cube of half-spoiled energon.

"What do you mean, a disagreement?" to Cliffjumper's question it was Prowl who answered with his clean, authoritative tone worthy of a respectable police officer.

"He means she insulted his favorite tunes, calling them the 'shriek of a Fanghur made by a ravenous dog' whatever that means. His answer to her was 'Bite me!'. Saphira took that literally and happily obliged to him." Prowl didn't laugh though his voice emanated a pinch of mirth. His chassis was colored in white and black highlights, the Autobot insignia proudly shining on his car hood. His optics - though not presently visible - were hidden behind an orange vizor.

"So that's where you got those bite marks in your chassis." Cliffjumper held back a chuckle. "Good thing you didn't wind up her chew toy."

"Trust me Cliff, she regretted sinking her fangs in me right away. What about ya?"

"Eh, Arcee is becoming buddy-buddy with a girl named Ismira. She's Eragon's niece, I hear. They talk a lot. Good for her. Sungaze is exchanging brain storms with a guy named Herin, or so Windshield told me."

"We've arrived." Prowl put an end to the dialogue and halted, Jazz and Cliff following his example. They had come into a bifurcation drawn by the east border of Beor Mountains, one path to north and other to south.

"Alright, you all know the mission so I won't waste time announcing it." they remained in vehicular form. "You two patrol east, I take west. Maintain the stealth cloak on always. Optimus ordered to avoid all contact with the locals."

"Yeah, we know that. Optimus promised ESK we play quiet, still." Jazz had heard that before. ESK was how Jazz had nicknamed Eragon Shadeslayer Kingkiller. Hence why they would be rendered invisible by electronic stealth cloaks and engines turned into 'silence mode'.

Prowl drove through the north canyon whilst Cliffjumper and Jazz took the opposite. A major disadvantage of this terrain was the lack of smooth, flat roadways. The canyons were plain enough to travel by wheels but it was not ideal for racing. Their path was paved with semi-buried rocks and sometime a puddle hidden but the knee-length grass. But the veterans didn't express their discomfort verbally; they were supposed to be subtle on this mission.

"_Jazz, you think the rumours are true?"_ Cliffjumper communicated electronically to avoid detection. _"That old bucket-head nose-dived around here?"_

He referred of course to Megatron, the Decepticon warlord. The tyrant was last seen after his throwdown with Optimus on top of the _Ark_ when they made the ill-fated journey to this world. The Prime never was able to determine exactly where his nemesis would plummet.

"_Dunno, Cliff. Though I cross my fingers that he's rusting."_

They continued on their scouting until a sound of metal hitting rock in a padron put them on alert. The noise echoed in the canyon like it belonged there, never interrupting the space of three seconds between each new bang.

"_We've got something." _Jazz picked up on the source._ "Right around that mountainside."_

When the Autobots made the turn, even more silent and prepared to fight were it necessary, they were relieved to find a small organic humanoid hunched over a big boulder. They could not see it dozens of meters away but the man was chiseling something out of the rock. The man was short and old-looking and his long, white hair tied in braids. His tunics were old and tattered.

"_Just a human."_ Cliff mentally shrugged. They silently went backwards and moved out before the native could sense their presence. Invisible and quiet they may be, if the short man could sense their minds the cover would be blown.

When they were a safe distance and rolled out Jazz voiced a thought:

"_I don't think that was a human at all, Cliff. That was dwarf."_

"_Then what's he doin' here?"_

"_How should I know, ESK said some dwarves are hermits or somethin'."_

When they were gone, the dwarf halted his work to examine his surroundings. It was none other than Vermûnd, a Vargrimstn - exiled honorless dwarf - and former clan chief of the Az Sweldn rak Anhûin, who was banished for attempting to murder Eragon, twenty-three years ago. The dwarf scowled, shrugged and went back to his solitary work.

Meanwhile, the two Autobots continued on their mission when they came to a dead end. The mountains grew in height too much for them to see anything beyond.

"So much for that. I'll radio Prowl._"_ Jazz sighed disappointed and dropping the comm link.

"Hold on! I've got something." Cliffjumper checked his sensors. "It's the electromagnetic distortion of a spacebridge, right on top of us!"

The two invisible Autobots turned their sensors up to see a vortex of green and blue tore open in the sky. A big Decepticon ship emerged from the spacebridge, which closed afterwards.

"'Cons!" Jazz growled. "They haven't stop us or they'd be raining fire on us."

The ship was too many miles up to be properly identified, and moving west where they couldn't follow.

"We better report this to Optimus."

"Hold it, Cliff. I'm thinking we should get more info on this. If we get that tub's ID, we know who we're dealin' with."

"And how are gonna do that without being spied? Last I checked, my name is 'Cliffjumper', not 'Cloudjumper'."

Jazz transformed into bipedal form and grinned, deploying his grapple-hook. It was a useful tool to grab and pull in far away objects or move quickly in urban areas. This was no urban area so the mountains would have to do.

"Okay, I know what you have in mind? But what should I do?" Cliffjumper asked after transforming into bot too.

"Just stick around and watch me getting the job done. With style!" Jazz fired the grapple-hook at a mount of solid rock. When the hook reached and grasped the target, it pulled Jazz up to the rock. Cliffjumper observed as he repeated the process to reach ever higher, until he was at the top of a peak. "Yo, Cliff! I can see ya from here!"

"Cool! Can you see the ship's ID mark?"

Jazz gazed at the retreating vessel. To his disappointment, there was still a much to great distance to see it. But he spotted another peak beside the ship, one that could help him. It seemed unsteadily but he wasn't about to give up because of lack of security:

"If you got it, you got it, and I got it." he smiled and extended the grapple-hook, reaching for the unsafe peak. He swung himself and rose up just high and close enough to zoom in his optics and catch the ID code imprinted on the ship's broadside. "Yep, I definitely got it!"

Then when he lost momentum and initiated his descent, the peak the grapple was holding onto broke. And Jazz began to fall several hundred meters into the ground.

"Scrap!" Cliffjumper shouted on the ground.

"Maybe I don't got it." Jazz admitted to himself.

Then, to his and Cliff's surprise, Prowl came in, swinging on his own grapple-hook and grabbed Jazz in mid-falling.

"Wow, you got it, Prowl!" he thanked his savior.

"More to the point, Jazz, I got _you_." Prowl landed them safely on the floor where Cliffjumper came to meet.

"I know this sounds like _deja vu_, but I seriously can't believe you outrank me." Cliff snorted once the danger past.

"If it is any consolation for you, Cliffjumper, _I_ outrank _him_. Fortunately." Prowl jabbed.

"Very funny, _sir_." Jazz returned. "Anyways, we came here looking for signs of trouble. And I got it." he said pointing to his own head. "Took a nice pic of the ID code. Now we get back to the crib and run this babe through the database."

"Luckily, Ratchet and Perceptor have finished building the groundbridge." Prowl went for his comm-link and requested a pick up. The vortex of swirling green and blue light appeared before them.

"But I get where your_ deja vu_ feels goes, Cliff." Jazz commented, walking towards the portal. "This is like that time when we went to track down Grimlock in the Sea of Rust. Speaking of the big and ugly, what would he and his teams think of the dragons?"

"Swoop would probably get along with them, he almost looks like a dragon." Cliffjumper shrugged. "Now Grimlock...I'd rather not think about it."

* * *

><p>Aboard the <em>Obliterator<em>, Starscream was preparing to give the speech for his troops, before the battle. The troops were armed and ready when the PA system activated and Starscream appeared on every mainframe throughout the ship:

"Noble warriors! We have arrived on the forsaken planet where our deceased Lord Megatron journeyed millennia ago to pursue our enemies, and lost his spark in the process. Now we make our descend here to eradicate the Autobots who have hidden like the cowards they are. To avenge our former leader and to destroy the last or out enemies, forever!"

All throughout the ship, roars of approval were heard. The battle was much welcomed by the Decepticons.

"But before we can face the Autobots, it is imperative that we previously harvest a stockpile of energon. Fortunately, I, Lord Starscream, have discovered the perfect source."

Per Starscream's order, Soundwave displayed the holographic image of a gigantic volcanic crater, its height only surpassed by the tallest buildings of Cybertron. Some of the Decepticons were slightly awed, though they didn't show it.

"Inside this hollow mountain, a large stock of energon was buried by Decepticon scouts millennia ago. Though to our surprise, it appears that a pesky race of organic native insects has settled there. We will now erradicate the vermin and claim what is ours. And once he have plucked out the resources, we will storm the Autobot base and wipe them out of existence."

This time the crowd's response was much more silent. There were even groans of disappointment. The Decepticons were earning for battle. The prospect of avenging the death of their late master and founder was what drove most of them now. Not Starscream's orders.

Starscream himself was frustrated for the lack of reaction from his soldiers. One of them, a mere Vehicon drone went as far as to raise a hand and ask:

"Uh, Commander Starscream, with all due respect, how can we defeat Optimus Prime and the Autobots on this planet without Lord Megatron's leadership?"

Starscream groaned irritated and scoffed at the drone:

"Allow me to be crystal clear. I studied for millennia under our former master. Thus, having learnt and improved upon his tactics, I am equipped to lead us. I, Megatron's true heir, Lord Starscream, emperor of destruction!" he finished doing a pose of might with a clenched fist in the air. The Decepticons didn't buy it much, though.

Afterwards, Soundwave was atop of the ship, on the landing strip where the fliers could land and take off after going on patrol. Laserbeak, his last cassette, a minicon bird-like creature made of metal came flying. It emitted a constant chirping sound and landed on Soundwave's torso, immediately transforming back into his master's armor.

During the war for Cybertron, Soundwave had lost all his other cassettes - Ravage, Frenzy and Rumble - one by one. Laserbeak was his most useful to scout large areas by air, independently from him. The cassette had flown over the Beor Mountains, analyzing the zone. For two times Laserbeak came across some flying, reptilian, serpentine like creatures, but the creatures were avoided. The cassette casually found a faint, very faint trace of spark, a cybertronian life-signal. Soundwave didn't report this to Starscream; if that signal was indeed Megatron's, that power-hungry sycophant would do anything to extinguish. To verify if it was his rightful leader, Soundwave would have to recruit someone else's services.

So the silent spymaster went into the quarters of a special unit of combiners. When he entered, the leader immediately stood at attention, half-perplexed. He was the only occupant in the room with a bulky, yellow frame and a sort of wrecking ball in place of left hand. It was obvious this one turned into a front çpad shovel**.**

"Commander Soundwave, what can I do for you?" asked Scrapper, **(Live Action ROTF) **leader of the Constructicons.

* * *

><p>"It's no Doru Araeba but it is a nice start. The 'Nest of Rebirth', I see you have improved your talent of naming things." Angela complimented, sitting at the table. She had once mocked his naming of his Rider sword, Brisingr.<p>

"Actually, the dragons chose the name." Eragon corrected. He never suspected Angela had seen Doru Araeba, yet the herbalist's main characteristic was to know things she shouldn't.

"Hum, perish the thought." she shrugged.

Du Fläo abr Daburthr was indeed smaller compared to the graveyard city on Vroengard. Not because the scale was smaller; the rooms, hallways, doorways and buildings were large enough to house large dragons and the streets were wide enough for two dragons to walk abreast. But because it was still meant to accommodate a smaller number of dragons and Riders. Even after twenty-three years, the old order wasn't fully restored to its former glory.

"Would you like some tea? It's lathiena, a specialty from the plateau." the leader Rider offered, showing a black, dried berry. Those berries didn't exist in Alagaësia, only in the plateau. When they were discovered, Eragon performed a multitude of spells to assure they weren't poisonous. The lathiena, as they were named, had an appeasing effect when used for brewing tea. They were the perfect beverage for meditation.

"Lathiena?" the herbalist chuckled, not losing focus on her knitting. "You named them 'lathiena'? I just call them 'midnight mad rabbit-bite madness', because the symptoms are similar to a bite of mad rabbits. No thank you, it has been many years since I had tea of that, but I don't like the flavour."

Eragon hummed, going to the stone hoven and brewing a kettle of tea for him. He joined her at the table, waiting for the tea to brew.

The room was Eragon's home and Saphira's nest. Doru Araeba was completely built in stone and mostly elvish architecture with human touches. Du Fläo abr Daburthr's style also was mostly elvish, but with human and dwarven influence. The Dwarves build the greatest constructions in Alagaësia and now they were part of the Shur'tugal, therefore it was fitting their architecture was applied.

"There is one thing which I am curious about." Angela commented, giving a look at the wooden office.

"Oh? So there is actually something you do not know, so you are asking me?" Eragon teased. "When have we exchanged roles?"

"Your sense of humor still needs much improvement as well." she retorted. "Going back to my question, which I have no problem asking, why did you had the largest infrastructure in the city made of wood?"

One other major difference was the Mennla Traevam, Mother Tree in the ancient language, the huge tree over a mile high and beared an expansive, leafy canopy that gave shadow to the whole city. The Mennla Traevam had grown to be the main palace that included the ever-growing library, Eragon and Saphira's quarters, the high seat, where meetings were held between the elders - which were composed of Eragon, Arya and the handful of trained Riders, none of the exactly an 'elder' by undying standards. In a deeper part, protected by the strongest wards and spells, was the vault of the Eldunarí.

"When we reached the center of the plateau, the Mennla Traevam was an old, moribund giant. The elves were melancholic just to look at it. It pained Saphira, the dragons and I to see it." Eragon reminished. "I thought it reminded me of the dragons. Old, mighty, but still dying. It filled me with a cold warmth. I suppose that inspired Saphira, and through her the Eldunarí, to perform a miracle. The obelisk tree grew larger with renewed strength from the magic of the dragons. The elves joined their songs, making the tree into the healthy, magnificent beacon of rebirth it is today."

"You describe it as a beautiful moment." she paused her knitting to look at him profoundly. "Sometimes I envy you for your connection to Saphira. The dragons are creatures of wonder, more than they are of power and freedom."

Eragon didn't respond at that. Angela returned to the knitting. The smell of sweet spice told him the tea was ready and he got up to take the kettle off the oven and served the tea on a wooden cup for himself. The two remained there in silence, Eragon patient and Angela occupied. They had spent the last four hours talking. Mostly it was Eragon narrating how he and Saphira spent the last years while Angela kept cryptic about her activities.

The floor began to shake ever so lightly that only Eragon's senses could tell. He was in constant contact with Saphira, nowadays. When she was hunting and he was reading, or while they were both training the apprentices, dragon and Rider were in always aware of the other's activities; their bond had matured as they had. Hence why Eragon knew it was Saphira who caused the nigh imperceptible tremors. The Mennla Traevam had several holes for dragons to enter. One was connected to Eragon's and Saphira's shared quarters.

"My, you have matured quite nicely, O Beautiful Huntress!" Angela admired as the majestic matriarch made her entrance into the vast room and settled down on the large, soft blankets in the empty space destined for her.

"_Hello again, Old-Mind Seer. Where is Solembum?"_ she asked about the werecat that always accompanied the herbalist.

Angela seemed to recoil in on herself, something that didn't escape Eragon and Saphira.

"Solembum and I have had a...falling-out. He never liked Cybertronians and when I proposed we travel here after learning the Autobots had awaken, he refused and we separated. It was bad." she looked downcast, something he had never seen in her. Angela, as he remembered, displayed mostly an uncanny cheerfulness. Sometimes changed into anger, severity, or lament for others. But he never saw her sad for herself.

"_It would appear her relation with Solembum was more precious to her than it was to him._" Saphira groaned privately to Eragon, her nostrils smoking. Angela gazed at the tiny strands of smoke and seemingly forgot her own sadness:

"Why do you have the main building made of solid wood where fire-breathing dragons with sharp claws live?"

"Hum...the Mennla Traevam has several wards that shield her." Eragon was slightly surprised the herbalist recovered so instantaneously. "And the dragons know to avoid injuring the tree. Even the wild ones consider her sacred, to an extent."

Angela nodded at that and turned her gaze to the window, watching the city outside below. Eragon confined with Saphira about Angela's somewhat out-of-character behavior:

"_She sounds different. Affected somehow. No witty remarks or comparisons_."

"_Solembum's absence has had an impact on her._" Saphira sighed melancholic. Angela indeed seemed less inclined to talk.

"Interesting thing." Angela sighed, not peeling her eyes off the city, and not losing concentration on her knitting. "This city has the perfect scale to accommodate Cybertronians, wouldn't you say?"

"I suppose...what is your point?"

"How do you plan to keep the Autobots hidden? Eventually the other races will catch wind of their existence, even with your Riders keeping their vows of silence."

Eragon looked down half in thought before replying:

"Aye, I am aware of that. I can't stop Optimus Prime from searching his enemies or potential allies upon our land. It is his right. And I know the appearance of Metal Giants would cause panic all over the land. The Dwarves would believe their mythological giants had returned to battle their gods again, in an apocalyptic battle as their myths predict." Eragon had learnt that much when he visited Celbedeil. There he was taught a crash-course by Grimstborith Gannel of the Dûrgrimst Quan, the guardians of the dwarven religion.

The Giants were the ancient enemies of the Gods and only after their demise, had Helzvog created the Dwarves. Gannel spoke that when the End of Time came, the giants would regenerate and battle the gods in a doomsday conflict.

"The Urgals have no giants in their mythology." Angela commented. "If they came upon an Autobot, they would attack no matter what."

"The humans would panic; the whole Broddring Kingdom and Surda could be overrun by mass-hysteria." Eragon then just had a thought. "What about the Werecats? You mentioned Solembum knows of them?"

"Yes, they do. But as you know Werecats rarely reveal what they know, even to each other. The knowledge of our metal friends is a secret of their species, one of the many they have had for millennia." Angela adopted a serious look to both dragon and Rider. "Would you like an advice? I may know very little regarding the Autobots, but I have some experience with Decepticons. They are a terrible menace, one even greater than Galbatorix. That is why the Werecats dislike all Cybertronians. If you ever see yourselves against them, you will want the Autobots on your side."

"_Did the werecats tell you that?_" Saphira tasted the air with her tongue.

"To my eternal unfortunitude, my Decepticon experience was first-hand." the conversation came to another pause as Eragon and Saphira pondered over that.

One of Eragon's spells warned him that someone was trying to scry him through his mirror. He excused himself from the company and went to his private study and room. There was a mirror in the wall for scrying that Eragon had magically bonded to the mirrors of the Dwarf King Orik's, Elven Queen Arya's and High Queen Nasuada's respective studies. It was also binded to his cousin Roran's and his family's house in the rebuilt Carvahall. The spell sensed it was the dwarf sovereign.

"Orik, brother! Greet…"

"Eragon!" Orik's face with brown braided beard was tickled with sweat and wrinkled with fear. His voice was cold and devoid of hope. "I never thought this day would come. You must come at once!

"Orik, what is happening?" Eragon became increasingly nervous. He had never seen his foster brother this terrified. Saphira shared his concern through their bond.

"They're here, Eragon! They have returned! By Gûntera, they're coming from the sky and raining on Farthen Dûr like a rain of death armored in metal. By all the Gods, the Giants are here, and they're forged of metal now!"

Eragon was petrified by the revelation. Before he could do or say anything else, the image on Orik's side trembled like an earthquake and disappeared. Eragon gripped his mirror and shook it:

"Orik?! ORIK!? SPEAK TO ME!" it was to no avail. This could only mean the mirror on the other was shattered. "Barzûln!"

* * *

><p>"It was no doubt the <em>Obliterator<em>, OP." Jazz reported.

"The ship assigned to Starscream in the Exodus." Optimus recollected. "And you say it was flying deeper into the region called 'Beor Mountains'."

Jazz had relayed everything to his leader, including his and Cliffjumper's encounter with the hermit dwarf.

Teletran-1 output a map of Alagaësia and Optimus analyzed the southern peaks. The computer bliped a dot on the mountains, the canyon where Jazz and Cliffjumper spotted the _Obliterator_. Then it drew a straight line form the dot, in the direction where the ship was going. The line crossed over the opened top of Farthen Dûr.

"The Beor Mountains are said to be an hazardous and difficult terrain, with underground tunnels enrooted for miles. It would stand to reason this is the site of a Decepticon Energon deposit. I fear it is merely a matter of time before the Decepticons come across the dwarves." Optimus didn't need to complete that statement. Decepticons were never fond of anything that wasn't another Decepticon.

Suddenly, a loud roar thundered and echoed across the _Ark_, slightly muffled by the metal architecture of the ship. The metal door split-opened to reveal a snarling angry Saphira and a frowning angry Eragon ridding her.

"Optimus!"

"Eragon." Rider and Prime were locked into each other's eyes. Jazz, Cliffjumper and Prowl were slightly stunned at this. There was some obvious tension in the air.

"Explain yourself, Optimus." Eragon's voice was restrained but ready to pounce with a spell. "The dwarves at Farthen Dûr are under attack by Metal Giants. Is this your work?"

"I'm afraid my fears have been realized." Optimus sighed. "An hour ago, my Autobots returned from a patrol at the east of the Beor Mountains. They encountered a Decepticon aircraft heading to Farthen Dûr. We Autobots never strike first."

"Do you swear you did not commited that attack?" Eragon used the Ancient Language. That was the tongue they used for talking between species.

"I assure you, Eragon, we never attacked your allies." the Prime replied. Eragon and Saphira relaxed a little, which prompted the Autobots to relief too.

"My Shur'tugal will respond to this attack. We will go to Fathen Dûr to battle the Decepticons." and Saphira roared for emphasis.

"Eragon, I do not question your bravery but your Riders are likely outnumbered and overpowered. You never battled Cybertronians before." Optimus admonished. "It would be best if we were to join forces."

"Are you proposing an alliance?"

"Yes. We will not stand idle while other sentient beings are rendered defenceless to the Decepticons." Optimus went to the controls of Teletran-1 and broadcasted his announcement to the whole ship. "Autobots, prepare for battle."

"Sir!" Cliffjumper, Prowl and Jazz saluted. Eragon quickly had a discussion with Saphira and spoke:

"I will organize my brethren. Even so it will take days to reach Farthen Dûr. Tronjheim may no longer exist when we arrive." he sounded dejected in the last part. The horrid image of the city-mountain reduced to shards of white marble and stained in dwarven blood plagued him. He chased the image away from his mind.

"I believe we can remedy that. Ratchet has recently finished building a groundbridge. A device that will allow us to transport directly to the battlefield."

Under normal circumstances, Eragon would have began a tirade of questions but time was of essence so he and Saphira retreated immediately.

* * *

><p>The High Seat was the large conference room atop the Mennla Traevam, opened to the sky. Eragon and Saphira were there with the other fully realized Riders and dragons. The Eldunarí maintained a mental presence. Blödhgarm was there as well. Eragon and Saphira had relayed the situation to their compatriots. Fortunately, all the Elders (sans Arya) were present. Two elves, two humans, one dwarf and one Urgal.<p>

"_Even if Tronjheim is under attack, this could be a trap devised by the Autobots to entrap us. Don't forget that some spiders take the web to the prey._" Algarve, the dragon bonded to the elf Henna spoke.

"Optimus gave his word in the Ancient Language that his people weren't responsible for this." Eragon pressed. "My friends we must act now."

"I agree. Every minute we spend debating is another that Tronjheim is closer to become a lifeless cinder." Maldafha, the female dwarf voiced vehemently.

"You are allowing your loyalty to your race to cloud your judgement, Shur'tugal Maldafha." Blödhgarm opined with no hint of accusation.

"Are you asking me to abandon my people?" she retorted contained an undertone of challenge.

"Maldafha, Blödhgarm never said that and none of us would ever ask such thing of you or any other Shur'tugal." Eragon appeased her. She was of the Dûrgrimst Ingeitum and the first of her kind to became a Rider.

"My sincere apologies, Maldafha-elda. What we are discussing here is the likelyhood of this Decepticon attack being a decoy to get our strongest warriors of Du Fläo abr Daburthr so the Autobots can attack the city. Furthermore, we only know that Farthen Dûr has been invaded by Metal Giants. They could be Autobots as well.

"Optimus Prime may have sworn innocence in our language, but let us not slip from mind these creatures arrived of another world and they challenge the natural laws of our own. How do we know they cannot bend or ignore the rules of the Ancient Language?"

"Eragon-elda," Henna, the elf bonded to Algarve, spoke up. "it is our duty as Shur'tugal to protect Alagaësia, and such we shall do with every breath in our mortal bodies, but we cannot leave our city unprotected."

"_Enough!_" Umaroth, spokesdragon of the Eldunarí, thundered. "_While the protection of our nest is imperative, we are the ones to stand between the people of Alagaësia and the darkness. Saphira's and Eragon's decision is valid."_ when one of the bonded dragons questioned about the city, Umaroth retorted. "_Du Fläo abr Daburthr is not a defenceless newly-made burrow, younglings. My brethren and I have been, for days and nights, conceiving a spell that could detain the Cybertronians. Not to speak of our other natural defenses that they don't know about._"

"_Umaroth-elda, we know that magic meant for aggression doesn't work on Cybertronians._" Saphira said. It was discovered that trying to perform a spell on the aliens to inflict harm didn't work properly for reason yet unknown. Though that didn't mean magic was useless against them; spells meant for attack but that didn't specifically included the aliens in the phrasing still functioned. For example, the simple 'brisingr' had effect should it be fired with enough energy.

"_Which is why this spell won't attack them directly, only if they come too close._" Umaroth didn't reveal any more details. "_You would be wise to prepare your claws and fangs. Take some of us to guide and empower you._"

It was decided all the Elders would go to Tronjheim by using this instant transportation device Optimus spoke of. Eragon made sure to quickly verify all of the defensive wards around the city while putting on his armor and helping Saphira putting on hers. Each elder would take at least five of the Eldunarí, safely packed and made indetectable with a complex incantation.

Before leaving, Saphira flew around a beautifully decorated fountain in the center of the city. A metal statue of a man with a dragon head sat in a throne, in the middle of the fountain:

"_Safe vigil, Cuaroc!_" Eragon mentally wished him and the statue that contained the Eldunarí Cuaroc, the old guardian of the Vault of Souls, leaped out of his throne with sword unsheathed. If anyone with vile intent wished to invade Du Fläo abr Daburthr, they would have to cross the old dragon.

When the elders and their dragons arrived at the Ark, the elves were the most apprehensive, though they were still fascinated. The Autobots were gathered in great numbers at the groundbridge nexus, a facility larger than any other closed space, safe for Farthen Dûr that Eragon had ever seen. Hundreds of Metal Giants, males and females or varying colors and shapes, stood at attention as the Prime gave the short battle-ready speech. Optimus spoke of the battle plans; how the Autobots would swarm in different points. Being familiar with Decepticon strategy, their enemies would have left drones with a small warrior force behind.

The Autobots spared one or two occasional glances at the dragons. Their eyes -'optics', as they called them - carried curiosity for the most part. This coming battle would be a first time for both allied factions. Yet there was still much doubt on Eragon's side; for a fact, they had never seen a Decepticon before.

"_I just hope I won't regret trusting Optimus._" he thought.

"_If they do betray us, little one, then we shall take as many of them screaming in agony into the void._" Saphira glowered and showed her fangs.

* * *

><p>The fields outside Tronjheim were burnt to a crisp. The vast opened space around the city-mountain were used for warrior training and sometimes outdoor celebration. Now that area, just like the dwarven warriors that tried to protect it, were reduced to ashes. Tronjheim's white walls of marble remained intact, save for a few shattered places where the Decepticons had struck warning blows.<p>

For now the invaders seemed uninterested in slaughtering the native pygmies, lest they challenged them again. When Starscream landed the miner Vehicon drones, the Dwarves panicked and refuged in their city. Until an army of brave warriors with powerful magicians and several war machines such as catapults came out to challenge them. The slaughter was brief and one-sided. There was nothing the primitive organics possessed that could harm or even bothered the eon-old Metal Giants.

But to the light blue and light grey with dark blue and gold accents Cyclonus **(Armada)** that made no difference. He wanted to go out there to crumble and blast that white peak into dust. And if the organic insects possessed anything that could indeed harm him, all the better. Oh, how he loved the thrill of battle, to leap into the enemies guns blazing, while firing his own guns like there's no tomorrow.

"Instead, our mighty _Lord_ Starscream puts me babysitting the drones." he muttered to himself, eyeing again the white mountain in temptation. The self-proclaimed Lord of the Decepticons had dispatched Cyclonus to oversee the digging through the dirt to reach the energon below. The _Obliterator_ had moved away, to scout the area. "With leadership likes his, by the time he locates the Autobot base, we will have used up all of this fuel."

Personally, Cyclonus couldn't care if Screamy lead them or not, just so long as he could have tons of Autobots to blast.

Unexpectedly to the trigger-happyDecepticon, three groundbridge portals opened and a battalion of Autobots came out of each one, surrounding and attacking the miner drones. Cyclonus saw a familiar face coming out of the nearest one.

"Ironhide!" he smirked eagerly bumping his fists. "Long time no see, rust bucket!"

"Cyclonus!" the war veteran Autobot growled. "Come here and I'll show just how rusted I am."

"Gladly!" the 'Con transformed into a flat-nosed helicopter and flew in a nosedive, firing his gatling blasters. "YAAH!"

Ironhide **(Live Action)** and his compatriots Sideswipe **(ROTF)** and Sunstreaker** (Prime/Pop-up)** had to hit the dirt. Cyclonus came around for another run, laughing maniacally. Sideswipe deployed his long blades and prepared to go at him but Ironhide stopped him.

"No! Sides, Sunny stand down. This is between him and me." Ironhide punched his fist into a palm. Seeing the fire in their senior's optics, they obeyed.

"Gonna flatten you, old timer. Just like I did to you and Armorhide on Tyger Pax!" Cyclonus began another barrage but this time Ironhide took it, covering his from with his armored cannon arms. That would have hurt any other bot but he hadn't gotten his name for naught. When the cocky Cyclonus was close enough, Ironhide leaped and grabbed himself onto him.

"Oh, you wanna go for a ride, Autobot!" Cyclonus begin executing the wildest aerobatics to shake him off but Ironhide didn't let go no matter what. The helicopter even went as far as to collide with the wall of the dargonhold, atop Tronjheim. They passed through the marble hardly but Ironhide was relentless. "Let go!"

"Eat this! For Armorhide!" Ironhide fired several shots from his arm-cannons, injuring Cyclonus. The helicopter began smoking from his wounds to lose stability, making an uncontrolled bee-line for the wall of Farthen Dûr. And this one was too thick and hard to pass through. "Nice flight!"

Ironhide jumped out the Decepticon and landed safely on the ground with a thundering shockwave. Cyclonus, on the other hand, couldn't avoid hitting the wall while trying to transform and fell down. He looked around to see the battle (if it could be called such) was over. The miners were either captured or dead, Ironhide and more Bots were coming for him.

To his big surprise, a big, blue organic Predacon-like thing jumped in front of him and snarled.

"Frag it! I'm outta here." he painfully transformed back into an helicopter and flew limping away thought the crater of the hollow mountain.

"_Coward viper! Egg breaker! Poisonous toad!_" she roared a flametongue at the escaping Cyclonus.

"_We shall have more chances to bate our teeth and claws in their blood._" Eragon assured her. He knew that one would report to the Decepticons and they would return to avenge this defeat. That was certain. They communed with their brethren to assure no one was in distress. Victorious as they may be, this was but a prelude.

Making certain the place was secured and there were no Decepticons in hiding, Eragon came to the gates of Tronjheim, in between the massive statues of golden griffins. But the gates did not even creaked. He projected his mind to find many hundreds of others recoiled in fear of divine punishment. After attempting to calm down a few, a shaking sentinel sent him a message, requesting an immediate audience with the king.

"_Maldafha, you and Bolmonga must join us in the audience with King Orik._" he informed her telepathically and the dwarf and her dragon soon joined them crossing the wide hallways of the capital.

Tronjheim naturally sounded empty for such a large city. This because the extra space was needed, in case the whole race had to migrate here. The city was supposed to be the impregnable sanctuary where their species could take shelter. And now it had been so easily violated.

When Eragon sensed a mind nearby, it was practically frozen with despair. The despair of death, the end, the death of the future. For Tronjheim and their race and everything they hold dear. The Rider tried to appease them, to pull them out of their maelstrom of sorrow and darkness. Seldom did they listened.

He turned to Maldafha. Her eyes were threatening to shed tears, to see her people and home in such a manner. He placed a reassuring hand on his former student's shoulder. She looked at him but gave no response, verbal or mental. Then she turned to Bolmonga, her brown-scaled partner gave her his own encouragement and she paused for a moment to hug his snout.

They finally stood against the two imposing granite doors and the fourteen guards. They too looked like they had their hope drained as if a wound had completely bled out.

The throne room was just like Eragon remembered save for the addition of Hrothgar's hírna now part of the two rows of the past forty-two dwarf sovereigns. And there was Orik sitting on the angular, spartan, black-marble throne. His head carried the ancient golden helmet with rubies and the hand, the equally ancient war hammer Volund.

"Majesty." Eragon spoke in Dwarvish and made a respectable bow. Maldafha made a bigger fraseado in her mother language. The dragons made no such thing though Saphira nodded her head in greeting of a friend.

"Eragon, Saphira, it appeases mine heart to see the friends of our race return in our hours of greatest need. So it does to see you have brought your race honor, young Rider." Orik said the last part to Maldafha. She was Orik's niece and a reason of pride for the Ingeitum as the first Dwarf rider. Even Though other clans looked disapprovingly at her very existence.

"Thank you, Majesty." then the king's expression turned a mixture of weariness and grim.

"Now my friends, explain to me what has happened...what is still happening. Gannel of the Dûrgrimst Quan says the End of Time is upon us. For the first time in my life Eragon, I am lost." he displayed his state of mind to all of them out of a sense of trust.

"Then allow me to help you find your road again, Your Majesty." Eragon proceeded with a resumed explanation of the events that transpired. The discovery of the Cybertronians race and their ancient war, the division between the Autobots and Decepticons and their intents. Orik's expression grew heavier with every moment.

"I now see that my worst fears were ungrounded." Orik shook his head. "The situation is even grimmer than I thought. Especially if these Decepticons return for revenge."

"Orik, we can fight them and defeat them. We have the Autobots on our side." Eragon said.

"And their enemies have a flying metal whale carrying hundreds of their own." Orik retorted. "We saw the metal behemoth hovering above Farthen Dûr before the attack."

Eragon turned momentaneously to Saphira. He recalled she firmly doubted the Autobot's claim of giant metal vessels capable of flight. Now that doubt crumbled.

"Even so, Optimus Prime is confident. The leader of the Decepticons has fallen long ago and their current head is an easier opponent. The best of the Shur'tugal are here to help. We may end this threat to Alagaësia today, as when we saved Farthen Dûr from Durza."

"Once Roran spoke to me, you know?" Orik began. "He told of a conversation he had with you. Regarding how your power makes you and Galbatorix giants walking among your own kind. And he was right, Eragon."

"We knurlan are dwarves compared with Humans, Elves and Urgals. But we can battle any of them with magic and metal. We used everything we had against those Metal Giants invading our mountain and nothing even grazed them. Today I finally understood Roran's words, felt them in my bones."

"_We all feel powerless one time or another. Even dragons._" Saphira commented. The next words came surprisingly, from Maldafha who had remained quiet until now:

"Âz knurl deimi lanok" it was an old saying of her species "Beware, the rock changes, Your Majesty. And during my instruction under Ebrithil Eragon, I learn the rock changes mostly when we're not looking. Forcing it to stay still or to change as we wish it so is just like trying to fly against the sun.

"We, knurlan, are the bones of the earth and thus must remain sturdy and closely-knit, like particles of stone long buried, even when the rock changes as we have done many times before."

A pregnant pause followed while Orik analyzed her. She kept still and unyielding under his scrutiny.

"As my ancestor Kurvast said, 'be the buried stone'. Well said Maldafha. After my army was decimated and my soldiers managed to control the panicking people before they ran all over Tronjheim like mice in a heating place, I ordered an evacuation through the tunnels beneath the city. Over half of the citizens are gone."

"Then I strongly advise you to complete the evacuation, Brother."

"Some of my warriors, including myself, are not anxious to leave, Eragon." Orik reacted as if he hand been mildly offended. "Tronjheim is our home, built with the sweat and blood of several generations of our ancestors. Isidar Mithrim can't be moved and dishonour would be casted upon our race if we abandoned it! Not to mention I'm not willing to let these monsters ravage everything we hold dear without a fight."

"Orik, I understand it burns. But staying here and trying to fight will only get you and your troops slaughtered, no matter if your bravery stand taller than Farthen Dûr itself. Your nation already lost faith in your gods today; if they lose their king it could be disastrous." Eragon phrased slow and carefully, trying to pull every right word to move Orik into his opinion. "I understand everything here is precious to you, just like Carvahall is still to me. But sometimes we must sacrifice the past, to safe-guard the future. I learnt this when I left twenty-three years ago.

"And I vow to you, as leader of the Shur'tugal and your foster brother, that my brethren and I will fight with every fiber of our beings and every breath in our bodies to save your home from the Decepticons."

Another pause followed, this time shorter. Orik sighed, like trying to swallow something hard and bitter. He rose from his throne and looked in the eyes of his foster brother:

"Good battle, mine brother." he then turned to all four, Riders and Dragons alike. "Fight well, all of you. And may Gûntera lend you his strength."

"Thank you." Eragon and Maldafha bowed.

"And Eragon, after this battle, I would have a word with you regarding your new comrades."

* * *

><p>The <strong>Mother Tree<strong>'s power (though not its design) is based on the Banyan-grove tree from the **Last Airbender**/**Legend of Korra** series.


	5. Battle for Farthen Dûr PART II

Just a note, the **Transformers** can't fly in their robot modes. Only a few exceptions can do that. To fly you must have a **airborn** alt mode, which is usually a **Decepticon** attribute.

* * *

><p><strong>METAL GIANTS<strong>

**Battle for Farthen Dûr PART II**

Scrapper, leader of the six Constructicons, transformed from load shovel into robot mode to look better at their surroundings. His team had just been dispatched to the middle of nowhere, many miles south of the hollow mountain or any other know energon deposit in this area.

"This is the place!"

"But there ain't nothin' here, boss." refuted Bonecrusher** (Live Action ROTF**), the yellow bulldozer. He was the big and bulky Decepticon always ready to bring the pain into the battle. His brute force and desire to use it made him second-in-command of the Constructicons.

"I know, but Soundwave gave us specific orders. Understood?" Scrapper answered in a tone that offered no room for discussion.

"Just sayin' this is kinda a weird job." the brute shrugged.

"If you're disappointed now," said Hook **(Live Action ROTF)**, the yellow giant truss cane and medic/warrior of the team. His left arm was the long structure that ended in a hook. "just wait until you hear this. The Autobots attacked the hollow mountain and sent Cyclonus flying with his aft between his legs!"

Some of the others, Hook included, chuckled at that. But Bonecrusher grunted disappointed for not being there.

"Scrap it!"

"That's enough, mechs!" Scrapper snapped, cutting off the laughing session. "We gotta a job to do, so we're gonna do it. Even if we don't get the gist of it."

"Now Constructicons. Transform!"

They all regressed into vehicle forms at his command. There was Scavenger **(Live Action ROTF)**, the giant red excavator, an expert in finding buried or hidden targets. Long Haul **(Live Action ROTF)**, the dark green dump truck and newest member of the team. And Mixmaster **(Live Action ROTF)**, the gray and silver cement mixer, a genius in chemical warfare.

"And combine into Devastator!"

The six Decepticons merged to become a multicolored combiner of giant and animalistic proportions. Devastator **(Live Action ROTF)** was so massive he couldn't stand on two legs, rather walking slowly on all fours. The titanic Decepticon walked in the tight space between the mountains until it fixed on the coordinates Soundwave had indicated. Roaring, it opened his massive mouth and sucked in the dirt and rocks and tree and even some unfortunate animals. All the contents were grinded to atoms within.

It was looking for something that Soundwave wanted found, dearly. It just didn't know what, yet.

* * *

><p>Eragon gazed at his fellow Riders and Elders. The two elves Henna and Ninfael. The humans Herin and his niece, Ismira. And the first two of their races, Maldafha the dwarf and Orkhav the Urgal. He went to meet Ismira who was checking the saddle on her ivory-white dragon, Luana.<p>

"Ismira-finiarela." he used the suffix for a promising young woman.

"Eragon-ebrithil." she used the suffix for a teacher. While it was true her apprenticeship was over, she and all the other Elders were taught by Eragon. And Ismira, due to the family bond, still addresses him as she did in her years of trainee. "If you intend to try and sway me from participating in this battle, I'm afraid you will be disappointed."

"No, my niece." he chuckled. "I've learnt long ago that you inherited your father's bull-headed stubbornness. Roran was so headstrong, his skull could be compared to that of a Kull."

"_And she's no different in that regard._" Luana teased with her feminine, musical voice.

"It takes one to know one, Luana. That must have been why you hatched for me." Ismira retorted with a grin, flashing her pearl-white teeth. She carried the mother's beauty and the father's might. She and her dragon were the second pair among humans to rise and join the ranks.

Ismira was barely ten when Luana hatched for her and Roran adamantly wanted his daughter to stay in Carvahall, in fear that another loved one would depart to a far-off land for eternity. Only after the Rider emissary assured him that she would return to visit once Luana was grown enough did he relented, albeit reluctantly.

Ismira was a promising one and advanced quickly through the lessons, graduating after thirteen years. Under normal circumstances, it took much more than a decade to conclude the teaching of a Shur'tugal. But Ismira and Luana made their ancestors proud. Though some of the ELdunarí intended to keep Ismira under watchful eye. Given the last human to show quick progress in their education was Galbatorix.

"Ismira, Luana, I just ask you to be cautious. This is a battle unlike any other we have seen. You're the youngest of all of us, it would be a painful tragedy to lose you."

"We will, uncle." she made the promise in the Ancient Language.

"_We will._" Luana joined in the vow.

Eragon left them and looked to other side of Farthen Dûr, hundreds of meters away, where Saphira was communing with Darverg. He walked to Optimus who was conversing with his lieutenants, Prowl, Ironhide and Arcee.

"Eragon, we may have a grievous situation in coming." Optimus sighed. "We just had confirmation from our database that the ship _Obliterator_ had a combiner team as crew members."

"A combiner?" he asked.

"Basically a combiner is a Cybertronian that is formed from the combination of a team of normal Cybertronians specially trained for the endeavour. The goal is for the team of combiners to make a mighty, titanic warrior who can take on an entire army."

"There's only one good thing when you're fighting a combiner: the bigger they are, the more there is to shoot." Ironhide uttered in his rough voice that reminded Eragon of the oldest veterans of the Varden.

"In this case, the combiner in question is a team called Combaticons. They were subjects of a Decepticon scientist's, Shockwave, first combiner experiment, which was successful. During the war, Bruticus was an enormous brute who could rampage through our forces with ease. When the _Obliterator_ left Cybertron on the Exodus, we knew it was commanded by Starscream, second-in-command of the Decepticons, and crewed by the Combaticons."

"And while Starscream is an amator when it comes to leading, Bruticus is a heavy-hitter with enough muscle to wipe us out." Arcee added.

"Not to mention how many soldiers Starscream may have press ganged into service." Prowl rubbed his chin in thought. "I believe we can fight them, but they have air advantage and we might be severely outnumbered."

"We don't know how many troops Starscream may have gathered, but we can be certain the Combaticons will most definitely be among them. Their numbers will be greater than us, if he has indeed recruited additional forces over the millennia." Optimus finished.

"Our best chance to pull this off is to play an ambush. Fall on top of them like scraplets. With any luck, the geology of this place may camouflage our signals so they can't detect until its too late." Ironhide slammed his fists together. Eragon understood the tactic but he feared there was a downside coming. His suspicion was confirmed when Optimus spoke again:

"Unfortunately, even if we maintain ourselves hidden from sight, our sheer numbers will spark enough energy for the Decepticons to see though our disguise."

"If I understood correctly, they can sense your life energy even if you try to hide from their sight." Eragon understood that perfectly, as those rules also apply in magic. He could hide his thoughts from any intruder but not the presence of his mind. Just as he could not conceal the beacon of light that was the vital energy in his own body.

"Were we only a dozen or so, we could conceal our presence, but we are almost a hundred." Optimus gazed at his soldiers scattered around Farthen Dûr with their assigned tasks. He turned to Eragon with a penetrating look, optics on eyes. "The _Obliterator_ will arrive here in an Earth hour which is why I am asking for your assistance in this effort. If we are to save this place, this ambush must be successful. Is there anything your brethren can do to help us?"

Optimus referred to magic, the ability that these organics possessed but he understood very little of. The Prime knew, after a few talks with Eragon though mostly information acquired by Perceptor, that it was controlled by the Ancient Language and required energy to fuel it like every other natural process. Perceptor had been very thorough in his quizzes to understand better the concept and rules. Yet so far no success in reproducing the process. Perceptor theorized it required organic energy, perhaps.

What Optimus didn't know was that while he was speaking, the Eldunarí connected to Eragon had also listened to his problem and were already concocting a solution, appealing to their centuries of experience. Together they filled Eragon's mind and explained their solution to him.

"They detect the energy in your bodies, emitted by your sparks, as I understand." Optimus nodded and Eragon continued. He hated to take credit for someone else's ideas but he could not reveal the existence of the hearts of hearts. He would have to say this plan was his own. "Saphira and I may have the solution to hide your life-signatures. We have arranged a complex spell."

* * *

><p>Aboard the <em>Obliterator<em>, Starscream was pacing in frustrated circles. Before him stood Cyclonus, after being patched up by the ship's medic, Knockout **(TF Prime)**. The seeker finally stopped and looked Cyclonus in the face.

"Cyclonus, explain to me again how could you allow the energon to fall into the hands of the Autobots!"

"Well, Screamer-boss, I was ready to put a few dents on that slagger Ironhide when he gets the better of me and flies me into the wall of the mountain. The Autobots had some organic Predacon-like pets on their side. The drones were all taken out so I retreated. Better to live today and fight tomorrow, right?" Cyclonus grinned awkwardly at his phrasing but Starscream scoffed, getting just inches from the helicopter's face:

"You should have guarded the spoils with your life, as it is expected from any self-respecting Decepticon! Now get out of my sight!"

The fight-loving Decepticon left the bridge, leaving the seeker alone with the drones piloting the ship. Oh, why was he stuck with incompetent soldiers like Cyclonus? Him, Lord Starscream, never succeeded in his plans because his troops always made mistakes! His plans were flawless, his tactics perfect and to the point. Yet his impudent followers never got it done right! It was their fault, alone!

"How long until we reach the target?" he snapped at the helmsman Vehicon.

"In ten minutes, Comman...er, _Lord_ Starscream." the drone quickly corrected. Starscream seldom executed soldiers in fear of starting a revolution. But drones were nothing more than cannon-fodder. Starscream heard someone coming in and turned to see the spymaster.

"Soundwave, alert the troops the battle they so dearly crave is upon us. And summon the Constructicons. I have a special task for them."

Soundwave didn't even flinch when he told Starscream in Cybertronian blink code - the same way Bumblebee currently communicated - that the Constructicons were missing. Soundwave had sent them on the off-the-record, unofficial mission south of the Beor Mountains. And the chief of communications wasn't about to tell that to anyone, especially not to the arrogant mockery of a 'Lord'.

"What?! What do you mean, 'they're gone'? Nobody turns their back on Lord Starscream!" Soundwave remained impassive while Starscream sputtered loud curses. "Incompetent, worthless, traitorous! When I eradicate the Autobots, those deserters will suffer my wrath!"

Soundwave turned away and made his silent exit. Only he knew where and why the Constructicons had 'deserted'.

One other matter occupied Soundwave's mind at the moment. He had sent Laserbeak scout the attacked mining site right and saw the said organic Predacon creatures were mounts to some other, two-legged organics. Those fire-breathing beast and their riders were obviously allies with the Autobots. He played again a piece of Optimus Prime's decrypted message:

"_... We have allied ourselves with a peacekeeping order named 'Dragon Riders' who shares our belief in freedom..."_ everything pointed to these organic-Predacon-mounting pygmies as the Dragon Riders. The spymaster once had wondered to himself whether they were a force to be reckoned with. Even with this result he wasn't sure. He needed more information. If these Dragon Riders were to fight the coming battle, Soundwave would make doubly sure to monitor the whole event.

* * *

><p>Farthen Dûr looked empty and eerie when the flying Decepticons stormed from the hole in the mountain. Leading were the two seekers and trine mates of Starscream, Thundercracker <strong>(TF Prime)<strong> and Skywarp **(TF Prime)**. They both shared the slender design with a long chin of Starscream, but their colors differed. Thundercracker was light-blue with black highlights, giving him a more harmless appearance than most Decepticons. In stark contrast, Skywarp had a pitch-black chassis decorated with ominous purple highlights.

"Well, this looks….empty." Skywarp shrugged while the other Decepticons landed on the surface around the strange white mountain of marble.

"Really, Captain Obvious? I hadn't noticed." Thundercracker sneered, checking his readings. "My scans indicate…"

"Your scans can go blow exhausts!" Skywarp immaturely spat.

The similarities between each other and Starscream were only in frame. Skywarp has no ambition to rise higher and even if he did, his less-than-adequate wits wouldn't take him far. Skywarp prefers to use his teleportation drive to perform sneak-attacks on unsuspecting enemies.

Thundercracker lacks Starscream's ambition and Skywarp's cruelty. He's a calmer, more level-headed example of a Decepticon. His only area of expertise is science, and since the (supposed) demise of Shockwave on this very planet, Thundercracker rose as the head of Decepticon warfare science.

"Hum, no Autobot signal in here. How strange they just left without taking any Energon." Thundercracker uttered.

"Maybe they just run. They're Autobots, after all." Skywarp turned to the soldiers under their command. "Alright, everyone get digging. The Autobots left the spoils here, so let's not waste them."

There was a collection of disappointed groans and curses to the cowardly Autobots. The Decepticon warriors were eager for a battle, not to pick up the work half-done by the slaughtered drones and Cyclonus.

"Blast those Autobots to the Pit!" Brawl **(WFC)**, the Combaticon prone to rage fits was so aggravated he even fired his twin back cannons at the wall of the hollow mountain, opening a large smoking crater.

One by one they descended into the ground and grudgingly began taking up the tools to dig their way to the energon buried. There was no reason to stay on-guard since their enemies had ran like the cowards they were.

Then that Autobots rained upon them like scraplets!

It was chaos for the invaders as their foes seemingly materialized out of thin air. With their soldiers scattered and momentaneously distracted, the first fell with ease to the Autobot guns. The Shur'tugal all took a moment to recuperate their strength, as the spell they all performed together took a toll, though not a painfully large one.

The spell was of a complex verbal architecture. An arrangement of sentences invented by the wise dragons that transferred the energy emitted by the Autobots into the rock environment. Farthen Dûr geology did infact kept some of the energy output hidden; the spell made sure it kept all of it hidden. Then the second part of the spell required to bend light waves to make Autobots and Shur'tugal invisible.

Some Autobots, to Eragon's surprise, could generate what was called 'stealth cloaks' that rendered them invisible. It was a welcomed surprise nonetheless, sparing energy for the second part of the spell.

"_Our gathered effort has triumphed. We can bite our prey now before it flees._" Umaroth announced to all Riders and dragons and the warriors took flight. While the Autobots dealt with the grounded army, the Eragon's troops took out the Decepticons who managed to escape into the air.

"_You will not escape!_" Saphira roared flying higher than the other dragons. She had seen the two look-alike-hard-hides were in charge and wouldn't allow the twin leaders to escape cowardly and leave their soldiers to die. She flew up on a straight line for the black-night-purple-spikes-hard-hide, Skywarp, and bathed him with a sea of blue flames.

"AAAAAHH!" Skywarp screamed in agony as the abnormally hot dragon fire burnt his chest chassis.

"_You didn't melt his armor._" Eragon had noted the dragons had reduced the Vehicons to molten metal.

"_Optimus said they were only drones, simple creations barely sentient used as cannon-fodder. These are genuine Cybertronians. It would make sense if their hides are more resilient._" then she added with a feeling of savage triumph. "_More resilient or not, it help him not._"

They watched as Skywarp plunged into the ground, alive but overwhelmed by the painful thermal shock. It was true, though. His torso armor bore a large hot scorching mark but the metal was still solid.

* * *

><p>On the ground, the Decepticon muscled brute Demolishor <strong>(Armada)<strong> was trying to blast away at the cyan-blue small and slender Autobot Blurr **(Animated)**. Of course, by using his super-speed Blurr was nothing more than a...well, a blur in Demolishor's line of sight.

"Hold still, pipsqueak!"

"WhyWouldYouTellMeThat, WhenItIsClearYouWouldBlastMeToDeathIfIObligued?" Blurr questioned so quickly it was hard to distinguish every word from the rest. Demolishor groaned in rage when he felt a sharp pain in his heels. He turned around to see, to his bewilderment and further enraging, a female human wearing green and black armor and armed with a sword that shone like diamond.

"Why you little!" he moved to squash the woman but, to his greater bewilderment, she ran (apparently) even faster than Blurr himself. "What the!"

Wi the distraction, Blurr ran to the Decepticon and delivered a succession of fast kicks that sent him falling on his face.

"I could have dealt with him by myself, Zippy." the woman, Angela, scoffed.

"Zippy! FirstOfAll,human, IDon'tBelieveI'veEverMetAnotherBotNamed'Zippy', SoOneCanOnlyAssumeThatYouCameUpWith'Zippy'InReferenceToMySpeed,WhichMayBeTechnicallyAccurate,ButLacksACertain...Creativity." Blurr stopped to look her in the eye, offended. "AnywaysMyNameIsBlurr,OfTheEliteGuard." he proudly pointed to Autobot insignia on his chest, this one possessed the three pairs of prongs on each side. "Furthermore,WhyAreYouFightingWithoutYourDragon? ThisIsDangeorus,LittleHuman."

"Autobots, bah!" the herbalist scoffed. "I don't need a dragon to have a bigger killcount than _you_."

She moved on into the battle, slicing at the Decepticons with her unique sword. Amazingly, the glittering blade was able to cut through the alien metal like air! Even more amazing, given the Rider's swords were barely able to do so.

* * *

><p>"Come on, Decepticon punk!" Jazz leaped onto the hulking helicopter Blackout's <strong>(Live Action)<strong> back and damaged his rotor blades so he could not escape.

"Get off me!" Blackout grabbed the Autobot who was barely half his size and tossed him away, shooting him in the leg in the process. Jazz was put out of the fight and would have been finished off hadn't Optimus come to cover him.

"Ratchet, look after our wounded comrade." Optimus handed the injured Jazz to the medic. The brothers Sideswipe and Sunstreaker came to join the Prime.

"Figures Jazz would loose like a moron since he fights like a moron." Sunstreaker muttered coldly.

Blackout fired continues rounds at the Prime, who dodge the first and took cover. When the fire ceased, Optimus quickly took the chance to shoot his blaster and hit Blackout in the hand carrying his gun. Sideswipe extended his long blades and raced in his wheel-turned-pedes around the Decepticon, striking blows that disabled him even further.

"Damn, I'm good!" Sideswipe boasted.

"Yeah, but I'm better, bro." Sunstreaker changed into vehicle and raced top speed toward the enemy. Blackout still made an attempt to attack him but Sunstreaker proved too evasive and drove beneath him. When he was passing in between the Decepticon's legs, he transformed and fired every round on him, knocking the large helicopter into stasis. "Told you!"

"What were you thinking, engaging an enemy clearly stronger than yourself without any plan?" Ratchet berated the impulsive warrior, while scanning his leg injury. He had brought Jazz out of the battle, surrounded by their comrades shielding them.

"What can I say, doc? I was doin' my thing, fighting with style!"

"And do you plan on joining the Allspark _with style_, too?"

"Maybe." that response brought an exasperated response from the medic:

"With an attitude like that, I don't understand why you didn't join the Wreckers."

"Don't be so glum, doc. Look around ya, we're winning!"

Indeed with the help of the Shur'tugal, the battle had been going on their side and soon all the Decepticons would be subdued with barely any Autobot casualty. If it hadn't been for those miniscule fleshling creatures riding on those organic Predacons, the outcome would be starkcontrasting.

* * *

><p>Arcee exchange blows in hand-to-hand combat with a femme seeker. This femme had a light-purple chassis with dark-gray wings. Her name was Slipstream <strong>(WFC)<strong>, like Arcee, specialized in martial arts and, unlike Arcee, sarcastic insults.

"My, aren't you light on your feet." Slipstream smiled sweetly. "You must be the infamous Arcee. I have heard so much about you."

"Is that so? Glad to hear it. Then you'll know who's the femme who will beat you now." Arcee retorted, deploying her arm-blades and attacked move after move while Slipstream dodged them all. Of course the Seeker could take flight but that would mean deal with those organics. And while she didn't know how to fight those strange fleshing Predacons, she knew how to slag Autobots. Therefore she stuck to the ground.

"I learnt your name from a mutual friend of ours. You may know her as…" the Decepticon paused for effect, while tangled in the fight. "Airachnid, I presume?"

That had the desired effect of making the azure Autobot halt for just a second. That second almost cost her the upper-hand and could have cost her spark as well. Slipstream attempted to slice Arcee's head but the Autobot dropped to the ground to avoid the blow and counter-attacked. The fight continued, Arcee fighting with more zeal and Slipstream continued talking.

"I thought so. She told me how you let your own partner Tailgate die rather than share a certain top secret info. My, and you Autobots claim to be united to the very end. Tsk. Tsk." Slipstream shook her head like talking to a child who had misbehaved, inwardly finding the whole moment to be delicious. She did loved verbally tormenting her enemies during a fight.

"SHUT UP!" Arcee redoubled her efforts to wipe out that smirk off the Decepticon's face.

* * *

><p>Again in the air, a Decepticon remained and had proven to be much more of a challenge than others. His name is Sixshot <strong>(G1)<strong>, a unique cybertronian in his own right. Sixshot possessed the ability to transform into five different forms - bipedal, tank, jet fighter, pistol and armored car -, something no other cybertronian ever achieved before. That made him a one-robot army feared by Bots and Cons alike. His power and brutality as a warrior made him the only Decepticon in the battle that was still airborne. Now he was up against four foes: two dragons and their Riders.

**( A.N. : Sixshot, in my story, can't transform into a winged-wolf. That will be explained later, for I have plans for him. It's a surprise.)**

"_If we strike him in the back, we can bring him down_." Maldafha broadcasted that to Bolmonga and the other Rider, the Urgal named Orkhav riding his green dragon Nagrit. Urgal and Dragon gave a battle roar in agreement.

"Have some of this, fleshies!" Sixshot, in his jet fighter mode, fired his hypersonic concussion blasters. The tremendous force of soundwaves disoriented and tossed the dragons away like leaves in the wind.

"Four up, four down!" he mirthfully laughed. "Just like shooting cyber-ducks in a barrel! Some Predacons these fleshies are."

Nagrit and Bolmonga crashed hardly on the ground, injured but managed to protect their riders and their wards saved them from mortal or crippling damage. One of the elf Riders went to assist them.

The sight of their wounded students angered Saphira and Eragon, who flew against the new enemy. They were intended to finish what the disciples had started, but also dishing out more pain to Sixshot.

"_Hatchling eater! Vile vulture!_" the matriarch dragon roared. While Eragon couldn't see the face of his enemy while he was transformed into a flying vehicle, he could guess the villain was leering.

"Two more go and add to my kill count." the fighter jet fired another round of the sonic waves but Saphira avoided them barely but unscratched and continued to fly for her enemy with killing intent.

Eragon meanwhile performed a spell he had conceived after hours of learning from Perceptor concerning Cybertronian mechanisms, particularly gun mechanisms. Guns were those barreled weapons meant for long-range, since they expelled different forms of harmful energy, as he understood. To expel the discharge of energy - as they commonly say 'to fire' -, it was required to press a trigger that activated the mechanism.

Using a complex phrasing he could see the trigger mechanism within the guns in his mind. Smirking, the head Rider used another spell to break the necessary components in the trigger.

"Say good…" the jet fighter attempted to fire only find out he couldn't. "What the!"

Saphira bathed him in her blue fire and Sixshot lost control and fell below.

"_Thank you, little one._" she appreciated his effort. _"If he had unleashed that attack again, I might have not been able to evade it_."

"_Humility, Saphira? You may be losing your touch_." his tease earned him a puff of smoke from her nostrils. But they weren't done yet, they still craved to punish Sixshot more. Saphira descended to face the grounded Sixshot again, now in bipedal mode.

"I don't know how, but you rendered my guns worthless." he groaned but didn't sound enraged at all. His voice appeared to be intrigued, maybe even amused. "I admit you two might be worthy of remembering your names, after I send you both to the great junkyard in the sky."

"She is Saphira Bjartskular Flametongue and I am Eragon Shadeslayer Kingkiller. Remember those names for we will send you to the void, if you insist on challenging us." Eragon bellowed at him, his voice enhanced by magic. He wanted the Decepticon to know plainly they were deadly serious.

"You tell him, Eragon! Let's KA-BOOM blow his tailpipe sky-high!" Warpath eagerly joined the fight.

* * *

><p>Starscream watched this disastrous battle on the mainframe of the bridge of the ship. Little time had gone by and the conflict was going down hill from the start. The Autobots mysteriously caught his troops by surprise and had grounded all of them.<p>

"They are losing?! An army of incompetence is what they are!" he snarled at his own troops. "Can't they even exterminate a infestation of organics?"

He had watched as the organic Predacons and their riders had engaged the Decepticons in the air and knocked them down. Those giant reptiles would even breath fire! Other times some mysteriously bad luck happened, like a malfunction on the weapons, that allowed the organics to take advantage. What was supposed to be an easy battle had become a debacle for him.

"Accursed Autobots and their organic pets!" Starscream scratched the keyboard with his claws in anger. "Soundwave!"

But the ever-silent third-in-command spymaster did not appear. Starscream called out him again with no result. He turned back to the PA intercom, muttering to himself in angry whispers:

"First the Constructicons, now that blasted Soundwave! I'm surrounded by incompetents!" he communicated with another group of Cybertronians who had remained aboard. To send them seemed overkill at first, now it was a necessity. "Combaticons, go! Eradicate those Autobots and their pesky organic pets! At once!"

"So our mighty _Lord_ Starscream now says he needs us." replied Onslaught **(WFC)**, the cunning strategist leader of the Combaticons. His chassis was of a dark blue like deep ocean and sick green like the muck on a swamp.

"Silence, or I'll have you punished! Now fall to my command and destroy them!" Starscream hissed and turned off communications.

Truth to be told, the Combaticons didn't like Starscream. They only accepted to follow him because they were stranded on a barren planet when the _Obliterator_ found them. Onslaught personally wouldn't mind serving someone else, if only they have what takes to lead the Decepticons. Such is not the case of Starscream.

"Alright Combaticons, listen up!" Onslaught addressed his team. There was Swindle **(FOC)**, Vortex **(FOC)**, Blast Off **(FOC)**. The only one missing was Brawl who had chosen to go down into the mountain, hoping to smash some Autobots. "Once again we have to clean up Starscream's mess."

"I gathered Brawl and Sixshot are up to their necks in scrap but still kicking. We're gonna need them to pull this one off."

"Hey, boss." Swindle, the yellow-brown and purple assault SUV, questioned. He was the one Combaticons that always saw profit in anything and lived to collect said profit.

"What is it?"

"If we slag some of those organic Predacons, can I keep 'em. Black market pays a fortunate for exotic pets." Swindle gave his usual snarky smile.

"Shut up, Swindle!" the other three Combaticons groaned.

* * *

><p>Soundwave had just arrived to the worksite of Devastator. The four-legged combiner had reported in to the spymaster when it found the buried threasure. Soundwave's face was concealed by the vizor but when Devastator separated into his components, each of them was stunned.<p>

"I don't believe this. Megatron." Scrapper murmurred.

There was in the whole Devastator had been digging, the shutdown body of Megatron, locked in stasis for millennia. Soundwave had the Constructicons carry the body with care and opened a bridge to his private workshop aboard the ship. They gently placed the worn, cold body of their old leader into a berth and left, per Soundwave's order.

The spymaster made sure to lock the door tight and went for a safe vault of his that nobody knew of. Not even Starscream. Inside the vault was a spiked, purple glowing crystal of Dark Energon.

Soundwave turned to his half-dead master and plunged the shard in the spark chamber.

* * *

><p>A bridge opened on the battlefield and the four Combaticons came out, beating down the Autobots caught by surprise. They appeared close by their comrade, Brawl, and helped him fight off a trio of enemies surrounding him.<p>

"Brawl, you ready?"

"Lets show 'em some pain!" Brawl roared gleefully.

"Combaticons, transform and combine into Bruticus **(WFC)**!" Onslaught commanded.

From their high point of view, Eragon and Saphira saw the four new Decepticon that just came out of the whirlpool of light that was the spacebridge. Their emotions turned into shock when they saw four of the five Decepticons transforming into a different limb with the leader becaming the torso of the titan.

"Bruticus online!" the titan combiner's roar echoed all over Farthen Dûr.

"Dragons' storm! It's gigantic!" Eragon shouted and even Saphira couldn't conceal her awe and slight terror. This was the combiner, the so-called Combaticons, that Optimus had warned him about. Bruticus was twice the size of Optimus, about forty feet tall. That was even taller than Glaedr when the old dragon still had his own flesh. While they had seen Shruikan who was even larger, Bruticus nonetheless possessed a menacing size.

"Get outta my way, puny Autobots!" Bruticus stomped onto two unfortunate Bots, unfazed by the round of blasts they shot at him. With this distractions, the beaten Decepticons began making their retreat.

"_We cannot allow those nest destroyers to escape!_" Saphira wanted to chase them and knocked them back into the ground.

"_Saphira, Bruticus is a more pressing menace now!_" Eragon admonished. He too hated to let villains escape unpunished. "_The Autobots need all of our power to stop that titan_."

She relented in spite of him also wanting to chase the fleeing Decepticons. Bruticus was rampaging, his right hand transformed into a barrel that gorged out fire. And to make matters worse, Sixshot joined him. The six changer transformed into a pistol that Bruticus wielded in his other hand and began blasting at far away targets, including Saphira. A stray shot hit the wall of Farthen Dûr and blew a crater in it.

"_Blast it! If just one of those hits us, we die_." Eragon grimaced.

"_Eragon, Saphira, we must regroup to devise a strategy._" Optimus spoke and Saphira came to land by the Prime and his lieutenants Arcee, Prowl and Ironhide.

"What weaknesses does that giant has?" Eragon half-asked, half-pleaded. That creature must have a debility!

"The best way to deal with a combiner is to keep mobile to avoid its attacks and strike in a swarm." Optimus explained. "Bruticus is powerful but not prone to think. By getting him aggravated we could lure him into a trap. Though given our current location, that option is unreliable."

"I can have a team of wheelers running around him while a second team shoots him in the aft, Optimus." Ironhide suggested and the Prime turned to Eragon.

"Can your Shur'tugal also provide a distraction?"

"It shall not be much. Two of our dragons have been injured." he gazed at Bolmonga and Nagrit who were still being treated by their Riders. Eragon and Saphira had also given their help in healing them after they disengaged from Sixshot.

"Optimus, even if we get Bruticus' attention, we don't have anything strong enough to do more than tickling him in the back." Arcee retorted.

"Warpath and the other heavy shooters will have to work with precision then." Optimus said though he realized the chances of that working, even if everything went accordingly, were rather slim.

"Optimus, we have situation!" Perceptor came running to them.

"What is happening?"

"Something very bad. My long-range sensors just picked up some nefarious activity from the _Obliterator_. Starscream is readying the EPW main guns."

The statement was followed by an stunned silence from the Autobots. A silence that spelled dread and Eragon was almost hesitating to ask:

"What does that mean?"

"The EPB - Earth-penetrating batteries - are the guns utilized to pierce through hardened shielding and obliterate a target on the ground. Starscream will use those potent guns to destroy Farthen Dûr with us in it. Nothing around us will be standing afterwards." Perceptor explained grimly.

"_No!_" Eragon felt his despair mix with Saphira's into an homogeneous lake of cold dread in their hearts. They had vowed Orik that Tronjheim would be saved, and failed to accomplish it. He wouldn't sacrifice his brethren fighting for a lost city who had been evacuated. But the loss would be irreplaceable. The dwarves would lose a treasure that gave their race hope to move forward. Eragon would lose the belief he could protect Alagaësia.

"We failed."

And then something else happened…

"I'm detecting new energy emissions. Spacebridges opening in the sky, all around the _Obliterator_!"

"Source?" Optimus asked.

"I cannot tell, Prime. It may be Decepticon reinforcements." the scientist was even grimmer.

"Oh, no." the last Prime sighed in near hopelessness. They had lost. They had leave the energon and this city to be destroyed so that their cause wouldn't die. Once again, the innocent would suffer because of the Decepticon's tyranny. "I am sorry, Eragon."

Little did the Prime knew the newcomers were actually their salvation.

"_This is Commander Ultra Magnus _**(TF Prime)**_ of the Autobots!"_ the transmission was heard by all Cybertronians and spellcasters in the battle. "_Withdraw Decepticons or be destroyed!_"

* * *

><p>Out of the hollow mountain and into the sky, four Autobot ships emerged from the spacebridge vortexes and concentrated around the <em>Obliterator<em>.

"Autobots!" Starscream sputtered and ordered the bridge crew. "Turn around! Get us the scrap out of here!"

"But, what about our soldiers stranded on the field?" the Vehicon at the helm asked.

"Let them look after themselves. Now fly us out of here!"

* * *

><p>At the top of Farthen Dûr, one of the newly-arrived Autobot ships lowered until it was just at the opening. This ship, called <em>Jurassic<em>, was smaller but more fierce looking than the others. It carried sharp, triangular spikes in four straight lines, atop the ship. The forefront was designed like the skull of a with the eyes being the main guns. That only gave the vessel an even more threatening appearance. The bay doors of the 's mouth opened and four figures jumped out.

Eragon watched stupefied as the new Autobots descended all those miles at increasing speed. The three unknown Autobots landed with a deafening bang but intact and standing proud. Now Eragon could evaluate all of them, distinctly. Unlike all other Autobots he had seen, these three had no wheels or any signs their alternate modes were vehicles. They looked more primal, more animalistic. And their leader, the one on the middle carrying an orange sword, was a titan that stood even taller than Optimus, though not by any means as tall as Bruticus.

"They can hold their own against Bruticus." Optimus said like guessing what Eragon had been thinking.

Indeed the giant leader seemed to challenge the combiner by roaring and pointing his sword at him.

"GRIMLOCK IS KING!"

"Bruticus smash!" the combiner made his way to Grimlock, intend to smash him.

But Grimlock's **(WFC) **next move drew another surprise from Eragon. The leader stabbed his sword on the ground and slammed his fists on the ground with the arms standing parallely. For a moment Eragon thought this Grimlock was heeling to Bruticus then he noticed the transformation process beginning.

The legs joined into a massive, powerful tail with a sharp tip. The arms transformed into three-taloned muscled legs. Saphira's own mixed emotions of awe and puzzlement were shared by her Rider when the rest of Grimlock turned into what appeared to be the torso and head of a dragon!

"Is that...a dragon?!" he asked without thinking which obviously offended Saphira, her shock passed.

"_Eragon, please do not make me have to bite you! That Grimlock may be an outlandish bewilderment, but he incorporates neither the beauty or might of a dragon. He has no wings and those ridiculously tiny lengths with only two fingers could never be called 'arms'."_ she said the last part with distaste at Grimlock's tiny forelimbs. _"It's a disconfigurate creature!_"

Grimlock ran to Bruticus, snarling like an actual wild beast craving to taste the blood of its prey. His two followers transformed into equally bizarre creatures, one walking on all fours with a large, shielded head armed with three horns. The other was a slender flyer but by no means a dragon. It was more similar to a giant metallic bat with a long beak akin to a stork.

"_They all transfigurate into these bizarre beastial figures. I would said this puts them apart from the other Autobots._" Saphira noted. When Eragon voiced this to the Autobots, Ironhide responded:

"They call themselves 'Dinobots'. Their leader, Grimlock is a bit of a wild card, big, strong, rebellious and with an ego bigger than the galactic core. The other two are Swoop **(WFC) **and Slug **(FOC).**" he pointed to the flier and then the quadruped respectively.

Bruticus fired his Sixshot pistol at Grimlock but the blow didn't injure or even deter the Dinobot leader. Grimlock pounced and bit the hand holding the pistol, making the combiner drop it. Sixshot transformed into a jet and engaged swoop in aerial combat.

Slug charged against Bruticus' legs and the combiner lost his balance. Grimlock proceeded to bite his arm and pull at it.

"Aargh! You make Bruticus angry and Bruticus gets tougher!" he punched Grimlock with his other hand.

"No one is tougher than Grimlock!" the expelled a torrent of fire at Bruticus, much to Eragon and Saphira's further surprise. It seemed that this bestial form was somewhat designed after a dragon, even if it wasn't one.

The fire did little harm to Bruticus, who used the spinning blades on his left arm as a shield. Slug came in for another charge from behind and knocked Bruticus off again. Grimlock slashed at him with his tail, disorienting Bruticus even more. Next he bathed him with fire in the chest and stomped onto the combiner, finally stabbing him with the tail. The onslaught cause Bruticus to break apart into the beaten up Combaticons.

Grimlock changed back into bipedal form and roared victorious:

"NO ONE IS TOUGHER THAN GRIMLOCK!"

"_I know not what this galactic core that Ironhide mentioned is, but I can deduce it extends wider than the Hadarac Desert and taller than the Beor Mountains if it's even half the size of Grimlock's ego._" Saphira commented drily.

But next Sixshot came in and fired at the Grimlock forcing him to stagger back a bit. The Combaticons dragged themselves into an opportune spacebridge portal and left the battlefield. Sixshot followed out of Farthen Dûr and with the escaping _Obliterator_. The enemies had escaped but the defenders had won.

"_We won._" he mentally sighed, now feeling exhausted with the adrenaline running low.

"_This time._" Saphira added.

* * *

><p>Starscream growls of frustration echoed through the bridge of the <em>Obliterator<em>. A quarter of his forces had been captured by the Autobots whilst most of those who returned were heavily damaged. Knockout was up to his neck in work. This battle had turned into a complete fiasco, not to mention they had escape barely to the Autobot ships by spacebridging out of there.

"I cannot believe I am surrounded by good-for-nothings."

"Good-for-nothings, Starscream?" Blast Off, the brown and purple rocket Combaticon, was the only one who sustained no damage of his team. Maybe you should look at a mirror to see the good-for-nothing."

Blast Off and the others had been furious when they learnt Starscream had intended to leave them behind. If it hadn't been by Soundwave's well-placed exit, they would have been prisoners by now. Or worse, Dinobot breakfast.

"Watch your talk, or I'll have Knockout weld your mouthplate." the seeker threatened.

"You already gave the doctor plenty of work to fill up the next stellar cycle."

"Quiet!" Starscream bellowed as someone entered the bridge, though he did not care for who it was. "I am the Lord of the Decepticons! I am the leader! So you all shall fall to my leadership!"

"Leadership, Starscream? This is bad comedy."

The whole bridge froze in the moment those words were uttered by a deep, cold, commanding voice. A voice that every Decepticon and many Autobots knew and feared. The voice that hadn't been heard over fifty millennia ago.

"Lord Megatron!" Starscream, Blast Off and every other occupant of the bridge shouted. There stood the founder and original Lord of the Decepticons, twenty feet tall clad in gray-silver armor and the fusion cannon on the right arm.

"Decepticons, your rightful Lord and Master has returned!"


	6. Contacts and Contracts

Begins the story of** Windshield** and his relation with my Decepticon OC, **Skysword**. Also I make an explanation of the passage from protoform to a fully evolved adult cybertronian. This will be important for the future. And the continent where the Humans and **King Palancar** originated from is called **Laurunia**.

* * *

><p><strong>METAL GIANTS<strong>

**Contacts and Contracts**

Eragon and Saphira had supervised the health state of all Shur'tugal and dragons. Bolmonga and Nagrit were once again proud and strong. After securing Farthen Dûr and the _Obliterator _departed, the Autobots contacted the _Ark_ and gave news of their victory.

Eragon informed Du Fläo abr Daburthr through a special item of mental communication. The Shur'tugal city was shielded from scrying as Du Weldenvarden was, the item being the only thing that bypassed those wards.

Now the Autobots were transporting their handcuffed prisoners through the swirling whirpool of the groundbridge to the brig of the _Ark_. Meanwhile the Shur'tugal remained here, for Eragon believed each of the elders would be necessary for what would follow.

As of now he had just informed Orik through scrying of their victory, but the dwarven people would still be fearful of the Autobots. The head Rider knew he would soon have to sort this out with the dwarven government, so he pleaded Optimus and some of the Autobots to remain here, in case their testimony was necessary.

"Certainly, Eragon. It was but a matter of time before we were forced into contact with the natives. We must mend things in-between or else their fear will turn them against all of us." then Optimus added thoughtfully. "Their fear may even turn them against your order for keeping our existence secretive."

"Aye, even though the Dwarves have joined the Shur'tugal, it has been only recently and several clans still frown upon that." Eragon remembered Grimstborith Nado who leads the clan Knurlcarathn. Nado and his compatriots were hostile towards outsiders, though not hateful as Dûrgrimst Az Sweldn rak Anhûin had been.

Nado had made a bid for the throne against Orik and lost in the end. He remained a political rival and came to cause a great polemic when Orik announced the integration of the Dwarves into the Shur'tugal.

"If it comes to it, I shall testify before the Dwarves. Please, tell them in my name that we are willing to offer reparations to their city." Optimus gazed at the white mountain of marble that was Tronjheim. It had sustained only surface damage, since the Decepticons never stormed inside. The once pristine walls of white carried several craters and fragments. The sight made Eragon's heart heavy.

"I should go now, the meeting is to start shortly."

"Eragon!" Perceptor came running to him, making the ground beneath his feet shake. The Autobot scholar bent down on one knee and handed to Eragon something cradled in on metallic hand. "I have found it."

In Perceptor's hand was Brisingr, which Eragon had lost during the fight against Sixshot. The sword fell into a puddle of ravaged earth. Eragon located it with ease thanks to a tracking spell but could not recover it during the battle.

"My gratitude, Perceptor." Eragon took the sword, feeling the warmth of the blade surging through his arm. The sword Brisingr was different from the other Rider swords because it held a fragment of Eragon's personality due to the circumstances in which it was forged. It was a feeling of good companionship that was only submitted to the feeling of Saphira's presence.

"Eragon," Perceptor called in a quiet tone. "I realize you currently have many tasks demanding your attention, but when you have the time I would like to speak to you of an important matter. Something regarding your sword."

"My sword." he avoided saying the name Brisingr to not set the blade on fire. "Is there something wrong with it?"

"No, not at all. It is nothing grievous, just a curiosity about that steel. Farewell for now." the Autobot bid and left for his own work of assisting some warriors in need of repairs.

Eragon climbed onto Saphira who had just joined him after Perceptor left. She had heard the small exchange through Eragon's mind and casted a look at the occupied Perceptor.

"_He's evasive. Perhaps it is something better left for another time, or a matter not to be said between unsecure walls where every crawling ant and rodent can hear._" she gave her opinion and he performed a handful of spells to verify if the sword was damaged, which wasn't.

Saphira flew him to the gates of Tronjheim and the doors opened to allow them both in. The sentinels were now more controlled and relaxed, yet they still feared the Metal Giants, even though these were not hostile.

"King Orik and the clanmeet are ready to see you, Argetlam." the captain announced, a man with whitening red braided hair and bear.

The city remained empty and silent, save for the soldiers who had returned to scout the damage to the capital. The evacuated civilians will not return until it was deemed safe so.

Eragon descended into the lower chambers on the city, beneath the ground-level of Farthen Dûr. Saphira remained in the large hallway, since her presence would not be needed nor appreciated by some clanchiefs.

"_Best of fortunes facing the fiends of politics._" she bid him. Saphira found politics as strange and unnatural as any other dragon. For her kind, problems with others who did not agree with your view would be reasoned with. If that did no work, there would be a savage fight with claws and teeth involved. Saphira understood and thrived in the wars on the battlefield, but the wars of politics were something she had no inclination to engage on.

"_The 'fiends of politics'! Never change, Saphira._" he muffled a laugh. In these vast corridors, his laughing would have echoed to everyone in range, like the dwarf guards by the massive stone doors to the conference room.

He patted her on the snout and went in, the guards closed the doors behind him and stoically continued their vigil, ignoring the dragon sitting by the hallway.

The conference room was large and circular, with over three levels of ornate wooden chairs for all the thirteen clanchiefs to sit. Orik was present in the chair on the opposite side of the circle regarding the door. Out of the thirteen chairs meant for the Grimstborith, twelve were filled with tall mirrors where the different clanchiefs were attending the meeting through scrying. The only chair empty was the one formerly used by the Grimsborith of the Az Sweldn rak Anhûin, the now exiled clan.

Although Az Sweldn rak Anhûin have outcasted Vermûnd as their grimstborith years ago, they still have not rejoined their nation for they haven't yet acknowledged their villainy, such was the second condition. Their new grimstborith was rumored to be hateful still, though not as much as Vermûnd had been. Therefore, Az Sweldn rak Anhûin was still ostracized by their race. Their isolation was rumored to be taking a bite on their economy.

"Summoned, I stand before my fellow knurlan." he said in perfect dwarvish.

"Eragon, congratulations on your victory. You, Saphira and your brethren have rescued Farthen Dûr." Orik was still weary, though like his soldiers he looked much less tense. "Once again you have proven you are a true friend of the knurlan."

Some of the Grimstborith on the mirrors moved uncomfortable on their seats. Eragon calculated Orik had trouble appeasing some of them to his presence, since Eragon himself had brought more Metal Giants to Farthen Dûr.

"I have explained to mine felow Grimstborithn what you have told me regarding this new race, but the assembly wishes to hear it from you as well." Orik declared.

Hence Eragon retold all the information he had relayed to Orik before the second phase of the battle. Eventhough he had made the vow of 'speaking but the truth and only the truth' before the clanmeet, many were still in disbelief. Which was a natural reply, as they had only heard of the Metal Titans and their battle on Farthen Dûr from their subordinates, other grimstboriths or from Orik himself.

"This is preposterous!" Nado knocked his rock-like fist in his desk. "You insinuate these unworldly creatures are your allies, when they clearly wrought an unprovoked attack on our territory!"

"Honored Grimstborith Nado, as I have said before, the Cybertronians are split into two enemy factions." Eragon contained his frustration. "We, the Dragon Riders, have aligned ourselves with the peaceful faction, the Autobots. Without their much needed help, we would have been unable to save Farthen Dûr."

"However, you stand the only authority that stand such claim. How can this clanmeet be certain you Dragon Riders haven't allied yourselves with the Metal Giants? This battle between these two factions could have been a slanderous display staged by them and you!"

A collection of murmurs ran the scrying assembly until Orik furiously smashed his fist into the armlet of his chair.

"That's enough, Nado!" the king bellowed. "Eragon has proven time and again to be a trustworthy friend and a member of our race in all but blood! He has taken the vow of truth before speaking to this assembly. To offer insult to him now it to offend any other knurla."

"Apologies, Grimstnzborith Orik." Nado used the dwarvish word for 'king'.

Nado fell silent though there was something in his protest that Eragon found illogical. As Orik mentioned, Eragon had taken the oath of speaking only the truth to the clanmeet, both in dwarvish and in the Ancient Language. It was impossible for Eragon to be lying and Nado certainly knew that. So why that accusation?

Then Eragon understood what Nado wanted, but would never admit it to the clanmeet. He had accused Eragon of being the only authority who could stand for the truth!

"Honored Grimstborithn," he used the plural for 'grimstborith' to address all of the clanmeet. "I understand many of you still hold doubt regarding the motives of the Autobots. Nado has brought a reasonable point; I can only speak for my fellow Argetlam. So I suggest we hear from the leader of the Autobots, Optimus Prime."

The cacophonia was louder this time, Nado being the only one keeping silent. The other eleven clan chiefs were of deviating opinions. Some were adamantly against having a Metal Giants inside Tronjheim, others were reticent though curious. Orik seemed to be with the later group. Eragon had to vow Optimus meant no harm and even offered his soldier's services to repair Tronjheim, and assure them he would be attent to the Metal Giants' leader every move and be prepared to neutralize him at any moment.

"There is one problem with that Eragon. Our doors are hardly wide enough for a Metal Giants to pass." Orik noted as the doorways to the assembly room, that while tall were not enough. Eragon hummed in thought, making mental measurements before smiling to the king.

"I believe there is an easy solution to that. By your leave, Your Majesty." Eragon retreated the assembly room. A few minutes later, after the dwarven leaders bickered and argued some more, an unfamiliar sound was heard on the hallways. It sounded like a dragon constantly roaring consistently.

There was a spooked shout from one of the guards outside but nothing more. The rumbling continued even when the double doors creaked open. Every dwarf in the assembly emitted some sound of shock when they saw the red and blue metal… caravan(?) entering before Eragon.

The vehicle halted exactly in the center of the room and its armor and parts broke, shirted and merged back together to form a Metal Giant standing 20 feet tall.

"I would like you all to meet Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots." Eragon found some amusement in the dwarves bewildered expressions. Orik was just the most stunned of them all, as he was witnessed it first-hand.

"Greetings to all." it took several seconds for them all to acknowledge Optimus' greeting. Orik, as King, was the first to ask questions and inquired mostly about their origins and their purpose in Alagaësia. Then the Grimstborithn in turn began inquiring.

Besides Nado, those who saturated Optimus with questions were Gannel and Hadfala, respectively of the clans Quan and Ebardac. The Quan were the guardians of religion and Gannel didn't seem to like the Metal Giants. They didn't fit in dwarven mythology, which for him was the sacred explanation for everything. If something didn't compute with it, he ignored or even outright scorned it.

As for Hadfala, her clan was a minor one dedicated to scientific research and for many times they locked horns with the more powerful Quan for conflicts of belief. Hadfala was mostly curious about the Metal Giants and her quizzes were concerning the race itself, rather than the factions.

When Optimus mentioned energon, Orik requested to know exactly what is it. The Prime pulled a blue, beautifully glowing crystal out of his compartment. Eragon admired it though the dwarves obsessed with gemstones as they are, showed less interest. As if they had seen it many times before…

"And this energon was the reason why those Decepticon demons attacked our city?"

"Correct, Your Majesty." Optimus guarded the crystal. He also noticed the dwarves poor reaction to the show. "Dozens of thousands of years ago, Decepticon scouts laid their energon spoils in this mountain, long before you established here. We Autobots, as I recall, guarded two more energon deposits on other far away locations in the Beor Mountains."

Orik seemed to gather his thoughts before continuing. He must have had a quick self-debate:

"We had known of the existence of energon long ago. When our first king, Korgan, settled on Farthen Dûr, his most adventurous miners discovered scores of blue, glowing crystals. They were buried many kilometers deep and it was suspected much more rested even deeper. It was a wonder they intended to exploit but it was soon discovered the crystal instantly killed anyone who touched them with bare skin."

"Energon is highly corrosive to organic life." Optimus sighed.

"Fearing they were profaning a gift from the Gods, Korgan ordered the mining operations cancelled, the tunnels permanently sealed and their existence kept silent from the people. Only the clanchiefs and the king or queen were to know of it. Whenever a new clanchief rose, they would be told the secret. Soon after, two more sites where this blue crystal proliferated were discovered and immediately sealed away."

"Why keep the secret alive?" Eragon asked, curiously. "If you feared the place to be profaned, why not letting its existence remain burried from everyone?"

"Because, Eragon," Orik said. "as leaders of our nation, it is best we know all about the soil and stone we live upon."

"My Autobots are mining the energon as we speak." Optimus explained. "The sooner we transport all of it away, the less likely will the Decepticon make another assault for a fuel supply that will be gone."

"Since this substance is yours and not a gift from the gods as we originally believed, it is fair, Optimus Prime." Orik nodded. "The other two sites are isolated regions, long ago abandoned by our people. Just so long you don't interfere with our lives, it is yours."

"We regret your first contact with our species was this tragic, therefore rest assured that my Autobots are willing to fix the damage done to your city." Optimus offered but Orik turned it down:

"The knurla don't need anyone to heal their wounds, for we are a race as old and hard as all the rock of the Beor Mountains." Orik spoke with pride. Then he added thoughtfully. "However there is still the issue of our people coming into contact with yours. I suspect even to Metal Giants it will take more than a week for you to undig all the energon on Farthen Dûr and by that time, our citizens will be running these tunnels and caves again. The Knurlan do not trust easily."

"I have pondered over that and have placed Maldafha and Bolmonga as intermedium, in Tronjheim. As the first dwarf Rider, I am certain she will perform superbly in keeping the people in peaceful contact with the Autobots." Eragon put that as a subtle compliment to the dwarf race to sweeten the decision.

The clanmeet was finished and the two left, Optimus on his vehicle mode and Eragon joined Saphira. Though they all knew Orik and the clanchiefs were still arguing and debating over this matter.

"_Knowing the politics of the dwarves, they will still be twisting their tails over this in the next century._" Saphira commented and Eragon had to agree.

When they crossed the gates of Tronjheim, Optimus confessed:

"They do not trust my words. They fear us, almost as much as they fear the Decepticons."

"Trust is hardly won with but one battle." Eragon sighed. "Even so there's more to it than that. In less than a day, many things the Dwarves believed were shattered. Your very existence proves the world is not quite as they think they know it."

"My mentor usually said that change is hard to predict. And even when it is right before your sight, happening around you, it is tempting to refuse to acknowledge it. Because the present that we know is more attractive than an uncertain future."

"Alpha Trion spoke with wisdom." Eragon admitted. Optimus simply nodded, not seeing any need to speak.

The Rider turned to the digging site where the Autobots were extracting the crystallized Energon and placing them in large containers. From time to time, the groundbridge of the _Ark_ would open and the containers floated away into the vortex. According to Optimus, this stash of energon would last for long, even with so many Autobots newly-arrived to fuel. While the Decepticons had left empty-handed. It was a victory.

But when he turned to the burnt, ravaged soil of the battle, the scars of the city-mountain and the mourning dwarf families of the soldiers who died when the Decepticons stormed, he couldn't stop plaguing himself with doubt. Had he revealed the existence of the Autobots to Alagaësia, would this have been averted?

"_Little one._" Saphira immersed herself in him, chasing away those thoughts. He looked at her deep, blue irises and came to a decision.

"Optimus," the Prime turned to him. "this attack was something I wanted to avoid by keeping your existence hidden from the land. I feared the people would panic to know there were giants walking among Alagaësia. But now they are, and the people don't know it yet."

"It is your choice, Eragon. If you wish me to speak with the other leaders."

"We _will_ meet them. It is time Alagaësia hears of their new inhabitants."

* * *

><p>"M-Master, please allow me to...!" Starscream sputtered, cowering before the returned Megatron.<p>

"Explain things!" Megatron cut him off with a dark mien. "No, Starscream. Allow me to explain things in a manner which I hope you still remember."

Without warning, Megatron slammed his fist onto Starscream's chest, throwing him into a wall. The seeker was barely half Megatron's size and unable to withstand his strenght.

The Lord of the Decepticons proceeded to plant a foot onto Starscream's whole torso, threatening to crush his spark.

"In less than a day you manage to lose an entire supply of energon to the Autobots and render all my available army in need of repairing! And you call yourself inheritor of MY RIGHTFUL POSITION!"

"Apologies, Lord Megatron." the seeker begged. "I was merely trying to honor your memory...by eradicating the Autobots. After all, in your...absence, someone had to take command."

That last part made Megatron grab him by the neck tightly and look him in the optics. A look that made Starscream want to turn rather than face the fury of those large bloodshot optics.

"Even in death there is no command but mine! And you would be wise to remember that." the tyrant whispered softly, though he sounded just as menacing as if he had bellowed it.

He tossed Starscream on the ground and turned to the rest of the crew. Soundwave approached his one, true master and displayed the message that Optimus Prime broadcasted that had driven the _Obliterator_ upon this world.

"If Optimus has summoned his troops scattered throughout the Universe, we must reboost our own numbers. Soundwave, later I will require you send a similar call to all our brethren in the stars." the spymaster nodded. "But first, we shall require a sufficiently large base of operations." Megatron looked down thoughtfully with his arms behind his back.

"My liege," Starscream beamed, hoping to earn some points and erase his bad image. "rest assure that I have been working tirelessly to locate…"

"SILENCE!" Megatron's killing glare was enough to cease Starscream's prattling. "You will accompany Skywarp and Thundercracker to the crash site of the _Nemesis_ and return with anything that can be salvaged. At once!"

"Understood, master." he bowed nervously and left.

The _Nemesis_ was one of the Decepticon warships - the other being _Harbinger_ - that had been lost on Earth fifty millennia ago. They both crash-landed on different continents.

Megatron now turned to the rest of his uninjured soldiers to decide which was best to command a salvage team to the site of the _Harbinger_. One particular mech stood out, that he didn't remember seeing before among his soldiers.

This Decepticon was taller and bulkier than the average Cybertronian but still barely reached Megatron's level. His primary colors were dark gray and black. He was a flier, seeing the two sharp wings on his back. Triple-spiked epaulettes lay on each shoulder, and barbed spikes came out of each elbow. His helm was black, topped with three sharp spikes on the forehead resembling a crown. The optics were actually purple rather than red, granting him a more ominous look.

The Decepticon insignia shone on the mech's chest. There was something in this unknown mech that made Megatron both proud and hesitant to have as a soldier, but he pushed aside those feelings as he inquired:

"And who might you be, soldier? I do not recollect ever seeing you among my followers."

"My liege, I am Skysword."

Skysword! Megatron had to restrain himself to shout in surprise. When he collected himself, he smirked at the Decepticon. "Skysword, my youngest and most promising disciple! By the Pits, you have matured quite impressively."

"Thank you, sir." Skysword replied with a small but proud smirk of his own.

"And I see you have received the Purple Crest." Megatron praised. The Purple Crest was the specific purple colored Decepticon insignia awarded to every Decepticon with an Autobot killcount of one thousand in combat. Megatron had earned three of those already, a feat so far unmatched even after all these thousands of years. "It brings my spark joy to learn not all Decepticons have grown soft during my forced absence." he turned an angry optic to the door Starscream had gone through.

"How many Autobots have you executed so far?"

"Exactly one thousand, two hundred and thirty four, sir. I was hoping today to increase my tally."

"You will have your chance, young soldier. For now Skysword, you will be in charge of searching the wrecks of the _Harbinger_." Megatron dismissed him and he departed with his own team of drones.

Megatron then dismissed everyone else, sans Soundwave whom made sure they wouldn't be eavesdropped on. Though hardly any Decepticon without a deathwish would do such a thing on Megatron.

"As I said before Soundwave, we will require every resource, every shred of fortune to turn the tide on our favor." Megatron ceased his talking when his silent third-in-command spoke to him in blink code. Megatron puzzled frown lifted a curious eyebrow. "You have already located a place to serve as a base? One with already existing infrastructure to our scale?"

Soundwave nodded and Megatron laughed softly.

"I am satisfied to see you have not lost your touch, Soundwave. Chart a course to this 'Vroengard' you spoke of."

* * *

><p>It was a full moon night in the continent that was centuries ago abandoned by King Palancar and the humans, when a spacebridge vortex opened and from it emerged Skysword with a team of Vehicon drones.<p>

They were in a valley surrounded by tall mountains colored by ancient trees. In the valley there was a city of buildings made of stone and wood. Including the large palace in the center. The city was of human architecture. However, unlike the human cities of Alagaësia, it was deserted and abandoned for centuries ever since King Palancar left.

Unbeknownst to the Decepticons, this continent where the _Harbinger_ had crashed in days long past was called Laurunia, the homeland of Humans and Werecats. But both species had left it behind when a terrible plague of monsters began to assault the land. The last surviving humans and the werecats emigrated to Alagaësia, escaping narrowly to the monsters.

Skysword scanned the area, fixated on a southeast mountain. He checked his radar to see it pointing to the mountain. The direction where the old beacon of the _Harbinger_ was.

"Follow me." he grunted to the drones and started walking. Sure, he could just transform and fly up there, but first he wanted to take a look at this dead, ghost city. Not that he appreciated the works of fleshies insects, but rather he loved to see something decaying around him. It reminded of all the Autobots and other inferior creatures he had the pleasure of slaughtering.

The infrastructure was were heavily damaged, some even completely torn down. Vegetation and animals had taken over. Sometimes Skysword would fire at any tree or animal he spotted just to entertain himself during the walk.

But there was something rather suspicious here. Some of the infrastructure looked like it had only recently collapsed. And showed signs of an attack by something big and powerful, not erosion through time.

"Be on your guard." the moment he said that, the screams of a Vehicon impacted his audio receptors. He and the drones turned around to see the screaming Vehicons being dragged into a shadowy corner. His screams ceased immediately after he was no longer in sight. Skysword raced there, ready to fight. Not to save the pathetic drone but to catch the perpetrator, chop off it head and keep it as a souvenir.

When he reached the corner, all he saw was the disarrayed corpse of the Vehicon but no assailant. He looked around the alley to find no trace of any creature capable of that.

"Sir, what do you think that was?" another Vehicon asked but Skysword ignored him. He could tell they were being watched, he realized. Watched by hunters of the night, hiding in the darkness to catch their prey. These were the monster who had forced humans and werecats to leave Laurunia forever.

It was rather obvious and Skysword was about to say it to the idiotic drone when a thought occurred to him. If these hunters wanted to play 'predator and prey', he would oblige.

"It's nothing." he lied. "Whatever it was, it is gone now. Let's continue."

Carrying on the walk, Skysword paid close attention to any sound, any movement he detected. But whenever he sensed something he didn't change his pace, trying to give these hunters the feeling he was unaware of their presence. He realized now this ghost city was the hunters' domain, the empty buildings where they made their nests.

Then the killing began.

The hunters fell upon the Vehicons like scraplets. One of them attempted to get the jump on Skysword, but he was prepared and transformed his hand into a curved sword just in time. The large creature, about the his own size, impaled itself on his blade.

"Well, what do we have here?" Skysword inquired, analysing his latest kill while ignoring the terrorized screams of the Vehicons being torn apart. It looked like a dragon, but covered in mammal grey skin rather than scales. Aside from general shape it differed greatly from the colorful reptiles. The wings were leathery and strong. The mouths ended in long sharp beaks and the eyes were completely dark.

Unbeknownst to him, he had slayed a Lethrblaka, the adult phase of the Ra'zac.

Another of the hunters leaped before him and hissed, intent on attacking. Skysword disposed of the carcass, now leaking a green blood, and deployed his gun. He smirked eager for more slaughter. This is what he lives for!

A screeching sound echoed through the night and the whole carnage ceased. The Lethrblaka retreated, leaving a few battered and but still alive Vehicons. The monster in front of Skysword also backed down and retreated to a two-floor house with a large hole for it to enter.

The screeching sound appeared to a whistle of some sort and it stopped. There was another, different sound, afterwards. The sound of a vehicle rolling on treads. Skysword turned to see a cybertronian tank with a large cannon drive to him. It was the tank that sounded the whistle that controlled the monsters!

The tank transformed, adding more surprise to the situation. Skysword had expected to find the wreck of a barely functional ship. Some equipment, maybe even energon. He had never expected to find a survivor.

"Well, this night sure has been filed with surprises." he commented to the cyclopean Decepticon. "It has been quite some time, good doctor."

* * *

><p>Doru Araeba, the dragon city it was called, located in the center of Vroengard, was the ancient lair of the Shur'tugal. A place of power, wisdom, peace and wonder until the Fall, over a century ago. Now all that remained were the large ruins of stone buildings, though some were still standing.<p>

For the last 23 years, since the last of the hidden Eldunarí departed, Doru Araeba remained void of sentient life. That changed in the last twenty-four hours when the _Obliterator_ came hovering above the ruins and unloaded its crew.

"It is no Kaon, but it will have to do." Megatron admitted. The Decepticon were now eradicating the plant infestation that was sprouting on the streets and walls. They had been fortunate that Soundwave found this haven to be of their scale. The buildings were of the perfect size for Cybertronians. According to Soundwave, this city was once home of the miniscule organics that ride those fleshing predacons.

Megatron hummed to himself, pondering over the records of the battle Soundwave showed him, when a drone came to inform him Starscream had just returned.

"My liege, I regret to tell you that we found nothing usable on the wrecks of the _Nemesis_." Starscream sighed. "Asides from some spare parts, all devices were either outdated, eroded or destroyed. Not one scrap of energon, either."

Megatron grunted but did nothing else against the seeker. Those were daunting news. He needed a tactical advantage to turn the tide against the Autobots, especially now that they have these mysterious allies. There was something about them that just didn't compute.

"_Lord Megatron, I am ready to return._" Skysword said through the comm-channel.

"Soundwave, open a spacebridge portal." the spymaster did as told and from the vortex emerged Skysword leading the surviving battered Vehicons, returned from Laurunia. Megatron frowned at that; he would ask Skysword what happened later. The arrived envoye bowed to him.

"I find myself in need of good news," Megatron snarled. "So please, Skysword, tell me you've found something useful."

"Some_things_, my liege. And, _someone_." with an ever-present smirk, Skysword stepped aside to allow someone else to pass through the vortex.

Heavy footsteps echoed from beyond the tornado of light. A bulky shape with asymmetrical arms began to turn visible. The quizzing look that Thundercracker was giving it turned into bleak astonishment. The figure was of violet armor, its left arm a long, blocky cannon. Its face, a single, big red optic.

"He lives!" Thundercracker exclaimed.

"Shockwave..." Megatron flashed his shark-like smirk "Just the technical advantage I needed."

"Lord Megatron," Shockwave bowed and raised.

"This is quite an unexpected turn. I thought you had perished when the _Harbinger_ crashed on the other side of this wretched rock." the Decepticon leader stroked his chin.

"I had deduced the same of you, my liege. But I managed to secure a controlled crash of the _Harbinger_. In spite of that, due to an unpredicted incident I was locked in stasis for tens of thousands stellar cycles.

"I aroused from slumber about a millenium ago and discovered I was the only survivor on the planet, stranded. Realizing I was unable to leave or make contact with our forces in space, I turned my focus onto my research. By exploiting this land and its indigenous nature, I was able to make tremendous advances."

"Since you are once again amongst our ranks, the position of head of Decepticon warfare science is yours. Henceforth," Megatron turned to the light-blue triplet of Starscream "you Thundercracker will be Shockwave's assistant."

"Understood, my liege." the minor scientist resignedly bowed and Starscream had to appreciate the irony of his trine mate being downgraded, rather than himself for a change. Megatron turned back to Shockwave and gave him the update:

"Unfortunately, we are in need of warriors, not scientists. The Autobots have beaten our latest attack on an energon deposit with the assistance of their native allies. The so-called 'Dragon Riders' if I am correct. They are but fleshling insects; the real menace is their fire-breathing mounts, the organic version of Predacons."

"Dragons." Shockwave stated and the warlord nodded. "Even though they have no influence on Laurunia - the continent where I was stranded - I have heard of their feats.

"Forgive me for overstepping my place, but the Riders are just as much of a menace as the Dragons are." Shockwave kept his voice characteristically monotonous. "There is a subject that I must discuss with you, my liege. Preferably in private."

Megatron gazed at all of his other subordinates. Starscream was too late to hide his hungry gaze for the information. He conceded to Shockwave's request and the two moved to a secured building that was already set up to be war meeting room, supplied with basic security measures by Soundwave.

The Lord of the Decepticons and the scientist were now alone and guarded from potential eavesdroppers.

"Now Shockwave, what is this matter you so vehemently wish to keep in secrecy?"

"As I have mentioned, my liege, I have made scientific discoveries that surpass anything I have ever accomplish before."

"Get to the point." Megatron snarled.

"When I awoke, the creatures of this world appeared to possess capabilities that defied all science."

"What kind of capabilities?" Megatron quirked a metallic eyebrow.

"Supernatural capabilities, my liege." Shockwave's response brought a silent moment before Megatron laughed mockingly.

"I fear all these cycles in solitude may have rusted your processor, good doctor." Shockwave took that impassively and when Megatron relaxed and re-adopted his serious demeanour, the scientist retorted:

"Logic dictates a demonstration would clarify things." the cyclops lifted the palm of his only hand and whispered "Brising."

A purple flame erupted from the palm, casting a violet shade on Megatron's optics. The tyrant however, was not impressed.

"Shockwave, anyone can instal flame-throwers on their servos. If you intend to convince me you still have your senses, you shall have to do better than that."

Shockwave began to utter a few more words that Megatron could not catch. He extended his asymmetrical arms and the walls of the building began shaking. The border between wall and floor shattered.

Megatron watched with wide optics as the building began to be lifted in mid-air, the walls floating five feet, ten feet above the ground. Shockwave dropped his arms and the walls fell back into place. With another word in that strange language, the fractures were repaired and the walls melded back with the foundation.

In that moment, Starscream and other Decepticons burst in:

"Lord Megatron, what has happened? Are you alright?"

"Yes, I am fine. Now leave." he ordered, a bit confounded.

"But, Master…"

"NOW!" his raging roar was enough convincing and they left the leader and scientist alone again. Megatron looked intently to the one-big optic and muttered:

"I do NOT believe in sorcery. And I am more surprised you would."

"I am a scientist and a logician, Lord Megatron. When I awoke and discovered what this world holds, I had to accept the new input of information and revise my position.

"Soon after I began experimenting over this, I encountered a race of organics called 'humans'. Despite of their primitive technology, I realized they would be an impediment to my efforts. Therefore I devoted my time to conceive a means to eradicate them. One way to doing that and advancing my own research in unison, was to manufacture organic creatures that were specialized in preying on these humans."

"I see, but you were never specialized in organic biology. Scalpel **(ROTF)** was." Megatron countered, referring to the tiny Decepticon fanatic scientist expert on organics.

"Correct, and though Scalpel perished in the journey, I studied his logs thoroughly. I gathered the required test subjects and began my project."

"It does my spark good to see you once again tampering with creation." Megatron commented.

"It took a great endeavour but after roughly two hundred stellar cycles, I created the ultimate human hunter, which I named 'Ra'zac'.

"As the original one proved to be efficient, I continued creating more, eventually cloning the most skilled ones. The results proved to be excellent. As the humans were nearly wiped clean, only a few managed to escape by sea. Logic dictates those survives sailed to this continent and managed to survive. Yet they were of no consequence." Shockwave then paused.

"Then an unexpected effect took place. The Ra'zac, once reached their twentieth stellar cycle of age, evolve into a winged adult form. It turned out because I based some of their genetics on our own. They now call themselves 'Lethrblaka'."

"Call themselves?" Megatron frowned. "I do not like tools created from a cloning tank that think for themselves."

"Fortunately, I have programmed them to instinctively obey the Decepticon hierarchy. Although they had served their purpose, I kept upgrading the Lethrblaka, along commencing some other projects. The goal is to make the Lethrblaka so powerful they can overcome a dragon."

"A good thought, Shockwave." Megatron hummed. "But regarding the capabilities that you have acquired, can our soldiers learnt it as well?"

"Unlikely, my liege. This capability that the natives call 'magic' is the complex manipulation of energy with the processor. It can only be fueled by organic energy. I have had to make modifications to my biology in order to control it. Even so it took centuries to achieve worthy results. The alternative for us to have this ability on our side is to create tools that can use it for us."

Megatron pondered over a few minutes. Given how precarious things were for the Decepticons, he would take every resource available. Even if it was from this alien power he barely understood and - which he hated to admit - he feared slightly.

"Very well, doctor. Bring forth your Lethrblaka. I wish to see their strengths first-hand. When can you continue your other projects?"

"Once I have a supply of test subjects. Many test subjects." the scientist declared ominously.

* * *

><p>Ilirea, the city shielded from the sky by a stone shelf, was illuminated only by the posts of erisdar, magic lanterns. The citadel rose higher than the rest of the Broddring capital, giving it a slight appearance of a hill.<p>

After Galbatorix suicide spell destroyed much of the citadel, years of rebuilt managed to recreated the once beautiful city of before Galbatorix's reign. Though Ilirea remained a fortified place, the exterior walls and the citadel walls still standing tall. But now the citadel was supplied to house all the population in case of a siege.

At the center of the city, the restored castle possessed a large domed roof which opened as petals of a blossoming tulip and a large invisible flying speck entered the castle. The petals immediately closed with slow but silent motion.

The invisible creature revealed itself to be Saphira and Eragon. And inside the vast room was High Queen Nasuada to receive them.

The only other occupants were the few guards controlling the closing dome with a sophisticated system of sheaves. The guards had all been ordered to keep silent of this meeting and left once their job was done. Nobody was to know yet that Eragon Shadeslayer Kingkiller had returned to Alagaësia.

"Eragon!" the Queen did something very unpropriate of her status; she hugged the Rider who, passed the startle, reciprocated the hug. "It warms my heart to see you again in the flesh."

"Thank you. It's good to see you too."

"When you informed me you would be here by night, this afternoon, I could hardly believe you would arrive in so little time. It must have been a tiring journey."

"We flew through a short-cut." Eragon shrugged, meaning they had used a groundbridge. Nasuada ignored that, turning to Saphira and respectfully put a hand on her snout.

"Don't think I forgot of you, Saphira. I could never. Be welcome back!"

"_You have bloomed nicely, Nasuada!_" Saphira purred amused. In truth, Nasuada had been very young when she rose to the throne, hence, now in her late thirties she still possessed an exotic beauty. The Queen blushed at the dragon's comment and turned to Eragon:

"I suppose this means Angela's prediction was wrong. You did not depart Alagaësia forever." Eragon took a deep breath. He too had thought of that and it seemed a relief to know he would have to return, though only because the Decepticons attacked Farthen Dûr. But later one thought occurred to him…

"Maybe I have not departed forever now, but that might still happen. Saphira and I have too many years ahead of us." his words spoke with neutrality but a pang of sadness washed him. After being in his own exile, Eragon had learnt to ignore the sorrow by dedicating himself to his new duty. But now that he had returned, it felt like saying goodbye all over again.

"Enough, we will not discuss the uncertain shades of the future in this reunion." Nasuada proclaimed. "Under normal circumstances I would have thrown a festivity honoring the return of you both. Yet you made clear this is to be a meeting of the greatest importance."

"Yes, we must speak with the King Orrin and Lord Risthart." he enunciated the rulers of Surda and the independent city-estate of Teirm, respectively.

"They are in my conference chamber, through scrying. Our elf ambassador is there as well."

"That will not do. We need to have this meeting in this very same large space, for there is someone else we must call upon." Eragon argued and Nasuada conceded though she didn't bother hiding her curiosity. She had two servants bringing the mirrors and the elf ambassador Vanir. He and Eragon exchanged greeting in the ancient language.

Next he greeted Orrin and Risthart through the mirrors. Orrin looked older than Nasuada, the years had slightly stripped him of his pleasant appearance but he retained much of his strenght. Eragon had only met Risthart once and didn't know much of him yet, though Nasuada commented on occasion he was 'a bureaucrat of the worst kind', much like Brom had years ago when he first came to Teirm.

One presence he hadn't expected was the fat werecat Yelloweyes who lived with Nasuada for years.

"We meet again, Kingkiller." Yelloweyes purred at him.

"Rider Eragon, perhaps now you would like to tell us why all of this secrecy is needed." Orrin requested.

"Certainly, King of Surda. As you may already know, the dwarves have suddenly gone quiet and returned to the Beor Mountains in a frenzy."

"Quite right. The dwarf ambassador stationed here departed without a word." Nasuada informed.

"In Surda, all the merchants and business partners we shared broke ties without explanation and left." Orrin added. "Some were described as frightened men fleeing a shade."

"What I am to reveal to you now, I must ask for your secrecy not be revealed to the masses." Eragon pleaded and the sovereigns agreed, even though Risthart was irritably against it. He kept arguing the need for secrecy if his city was to be prepared for any imminent threat. In the end, he finally relented. Vanir was excused from that since he would have to report to Queen Arya.

"The dwarves have been attacked on Farthen Dûr by a new enemy. One that does not come from this world." Eragon proceeded to explain the origins of the Cybertronians, their war and their slumbering presence on Alagaësia until the recent awakening and the Battle for Farthen Dûr.

During the narration, Yelloweyes was visibly aggravated, his hair standing up, until he finally left. Eragon knew the werecats didn't like Cybertronians, according to Angela.

The sovereigns and even Vanir displayed all different sorts of disbelief. Nasuada and Orrin were both incredulous though she had a shade of fear in her eyes. Vanir showed less disbelief and more of a strange grim emotion that Eragon could not discern. Risthart, however, was utterly against crediting it.

"This is preposterous, Kingkiller!" the Lord of Teirm grunted. "Metal Giants that came from the stars! I believe you have spent too much time in solitude with elves and dragons."

Risthart even dared to question Eragon's sanity. In other situation, he would have burst laughing at such accusation but seeing what the last insane Dragon Rider had done to Alagaësia and the somewhat fearful expression of Nasuada, he restrained himself.

"Believe me not, Lord Risthart, but you may believe your eyes." he meant to everyone present. "I will give you my proof but I ask you not to panic."

Eragon subtly pressed the Autobot device to send the signal to the _Ark_, since he wasn't experienced enough to reach them with his mind, so far away. A few seconds passed silently until a groundbridge manifested in the spacious room.

Nasuada cried out in alarm, Orrin and Risthart nearly fell of their chairs and Vanir began a quick speech in the Ancient Language to defend himself. Eragon had to pacify them all and explaining them quickly there was nothing to fear.

A stunned quiet followed Optimus Prime crossing the portal. Eragon made the introductions quickly before anyone could panic. Like in the clanmeet on Tronjheim, Eragon found amusing the wonder, disbelief and fear in their faces, Vanir's included.

Nasuada was the first to speak and when Optimus talked back, educated and authoritative, the tension was let loose. Orrin followed with his own quiz and engaged in a small, short conversation regarding the concept of vacuum of space, one of the scientific matters that Orrin was most interested in. Risthart asked the less and showed himself unconvinced of Optimus' species abilities until the Prime transformed right there to prove it.

Then it came his confirmation of the events of the Battle for Farthen Dûr and the implication that the Decepticons escaped and might be anywhere in the world.

"As of now, we hold advantage in numbers and resources. Soon, I will send investigation teams to all the continents of your planet to search for our enemies." Optimus assured them.

"And my brethren maintains a growing presence, in search of any trace of the Decepticons, on the land or the sky." Eragon added.

Next they asked for more details on the battle, which only threw more fright and amazement to their expressions when Optimus and Eragon answered. Vanir asked very little and remained silent, otherwise.

"Optimus Prime," Orrin spoke up. "we are grateful that you stand willing to share your intel with us. But hearing how powerful and towering these Decepticons are, I feel we all must ask for more. Like your advancements in warfare science. We need more than wisdom, we need power to defend ourselves."

"We have witnessed the capacity of younger races for war. In the long term, it would absolutely bring more harm than good." Optimus replied sternly but not harshly. "Do not concern yourself, King Orrin. Right now, my Autobots are working closely with the Dragon Riders and teaching them how to fight Decepticons."

"Very well, Optimus Prime." Nasuada conceded. "Yet if we are be in alignment with the Autobots, it would be reasonable to have a permanent presence in here as a contact."

"You mean an ambassadorial presence." Optimus pondered. "All my soldiers would be difficult to conceal among your population. Though I have a solution. Allow me some time."

Optimus took a finger to his audio receptor to communicate with the _Ark_ and requested a groundbridge. When he left the collective leaders let out sighs of relief.

"Eragon, you have not lost your hex of dragging trouble onto yourself. And onto those bound to you." Nasuada said rather dryly.

"It is a gift, Your Majesty. But worry not; I fought alongside Optimus. I trust him."

"_We trust him_." Saphira spoke to everyone, though only the Queen and elf physically present heard her.

"Furthermore, even if we ignore the Autobots, the Decepticons won't ignore Alagaësia until they have all the spoils buried in our land. We cannot negotiate with them, if their unprovoked attack on the dwarven capital is any proof. Angela advised me that we will need the Autobots' help and friendship if we are to survive. I trust in them."

"You may trust him and his warriors. But what of our people?" Orrin uttered irritably. "If I were to announce to them, with every breath in my lungs, that the land is now inhabited by Metal Giants, either I would be accused of dementia and unseated or the masses would fill the streets in hysteria proclaiming the end of Alagaësia to the four winds."

"I agree. Our wisest, only option is to conceal the truth and hope there is no contact between us and those warmongering Decepticons." Nasuada sighed.

* * *

><p>The newly arrived Autobot ships had no air-docks in which to make port, so they had to improvise and make land squarely on the ground. On the edge of the plateau, as close as possible from the buried <em>Ark<em>, at the border of the Shell.

In one the ships, the _Valiant_, the protoforms Windshield, Flare Up and Sungaze were walking among its corridors, sometimes greeted by the adult cybertronians at work. Flare Up had previously been in the _Valiant_ and claims to have discovered someone they knew.

"Windy, you remember Hot Rod, right?"

"Yeah, we were friends right before the Exodus and he left on some other ship. He was a bit like you, irresponsible and always getting himself into more trouble than he could handle."

"Ah, ah! Very funny, Windshield." Flare Up pouted.

"Wait, is Hot Rod that someone you saw? He's here!" Windshield caught himself from shouting that. It had been so long since he saw his old friend. Over 50 thousand stellar cycles, even though he had only been awaken during a tiny span of that time.

"Hot Rod was a cool guy. He used to take me out for ride after studies, in the Iacon subways." Sungaze reminisced the memories. That of course had been before the Decepticons had mounted that fanatic attack on Iacon. "Perceptor wasn't too thrilled when he found out, though."

"Nope, Hot Rod ain't here." Flare Up said recently, breaking the other two' spirits.

"What?! Then what was all that talk about?" Windshield demanded.

"Let's just ask someone around." Flare Up approached a tall, imposing mech of shiny red chassis with golden highlights. He was giving commands to other junior officers with an air of authority but Flare Up approached him nonetheless.

"Hold on, that may be the captain of the _Valiant_." Windshield was more of following protocol but his remark did nothing to deter the young femme. She came by the mech and addressed as she would a peer:

"Hey, how's it going?"

"Idiot!" Windshield facepalmed. A impudent protoform addressing a high-rank Autobot like that would have repercussions! Flare Up had learnt nothing from her reprise by Ultra Magnus, back on Cybertron.

"Hello, Flare Up!"

"Yo, Hot Rod!"

Windshield and Sungaze froze in place, stupefied. The tall mech gazed at them too and smiled broadly.

"Windy, Sungaze! Long time no see. You three look the same, literally."

"Hot Rod!" Windshield smiled in return. "You're the last bot I expected to see giving orders."

"Ah! Very funny. But the name is Rodimus **(WFC)** Major now, captain of the _Valiant_." he spoke with less boastfulness Windshield would have expected from his old hot-headed, braggart friend.

"Captain huh, I'm surprised the ship is still in one piece."

"Careful now, young bot. I am of much higher rank than you so respect your elders." Rodimus feign threatened.

"'Respect your elders'? I see you've learnt some things from Kup."

"Yes, I had to grow up." Rodimus said with an emotion he couldn't quite place. "I've learnt that if you do things as Kup likes, there's less chance he'll bite your helm off."

Windshield was mildly impressed by his words. The Hot Rod he knew was never fond of his guardian Kup. According to Hot Rod, the old veteran Autobot constantly nagged him with old war stories and advice that the impetuous protoform rarely followed. Now Rodimus was responsible and apparently more ponderatif.

It struck Windshield how much his friend had changed. The pale blue and gray protoform had spotted a few old acquaintances on every ship, acquaintances who had been protoforms the last time he saw them. Fifty thousand stellar cycles had changed a lot, but he had not. The Autobots of the _Ark_ had remained frozen for millennia. That wasn't much for the adults, but Windshield, Sungaze and Flare Up would have been adults by now, had they remained awaken.

Everyone he knew from before had evolved and matured. But he and his younger friends remained the same.

"_We're probably the last children of our race._" then his thoughts turned to one other of his acquaintances, one he was not eager to encounter. "_Has Skysword also changed?_"

"Hey, Windshield!" Rodimus deep voice brought him back. "You okay, buddy?"

"Uh, I'm fine."

"Dude, you were spacing out." Flare Up noted with a frown. With perfect timing, Windshield received a call in his comm channel.

"I got a call" he took his servo to his audio receptor. ", from Optimus Prime."

"Well, duty calls me too. See ya around." Rodimus excused himself.

"_Windshield, this is Optimus Prime. Return to the _Ark_. There is something I must discuss with you._" the comm link was cut, leaving him no time to ask what was the matter. He gazed at Flare Up and Sungaze who were expecting:

"Optimus wants to talk about something with me. He didn't say what, though."

"Oh! You're in trouble, Windy!" Flare Up found the whole thing delicious. "He just called you without telling why. I know what that means all too well."

"I'm not surprised you do." Windshield transformed and made his retreat back to the _Ark_.

"Good luck, Windy." Sungaze bid him.

While the futuristic motorboard rolled to the buried Autobot HQ, he couldn't stop wondering what Optimus could want. He was in no trouble, that much he was certain of.

He came into Optimus' quarters. There was a large berth meant for recharge, tilted in a 45 degree angle from the floor. A computer rested on the wall with several well protected files and archives.

"Optimus, is something wrong?"

"Nothing is, Windshield. I simply require you for a special mission." that was unexpected.

"What mission?"

"I have just spoke with the other leaders of Alagaësia. The human High Queen Nasuada has requested an ambassadorial presence in the capital Ilirea. One who would fairly represent the Autobots, but also one who could easily blend in in their environment, since we remain a secret from the masses."

"...You don't mean me, do you?" Windshield was agape.

"Indeed I do. I have watched you mature over the cycles. And while you are not a fully evolved cybertronian, you incorporate bravery, righteousness and dedication to your comrades. All the values that define an Autobot."

"Thank you, sir." he was amazed that Optimus Prime himself would say that. It was true that Windshield had been much more mature than Flare Up, Hot Rod and his other contemporaneous. But he never felt himself to be anything special.

* * *

><p>Minutes later they both crossed the groundbridge into the vast salon of the Royal Palace of Ilirea. The first thing Nasuada noted was the stark difference in appearances between the towering adult and the human-sized protoform, even not regarding the sizes.<p>

Whereas Optimus looked implacable, he also appeared noble, heroic and wise. But this young Autobot the height of a young man struck her as plain and unattractive. His armor bore colors from a hazy blue to tasteless gray. The face didn't held the long-lived feeling that Optimus' mien did.

"Greetings and felicitations Majesties, my name is Windshield and I am humbled to be here." he tried to be as polite as possible while keeping a pleasant expression. In truth he was nervous since this was all new to him.

"Welcome to Ilirea, Windshield. Optimus Prime as assured me you are most qualified as emissary between your people and the humans of Alagaësia."

"Yes, Your Majesty. I will perform the task to the best of my abilities."

"That is heartening to hear indeed, Windshield." Nasuada paused for effect in which she contemplated the protoform subtly. Eragon knew she was overflowing with curiosity, her fear caused by Optimus not in effect now:

"I must confess a great curiosity regarding your race, so forgive me if I give the impression of prying for we humans are a curious people. Although the existence of your race will be kept a closed secret from the folk, those inside our circle will undoubtedly pursue answers. And as our unofficial ambassador and only contact, they shall turn to you to sate their thirst."

"_Oh, slag! I'm gonna have my own stalker fan club."_ Windshield thought not enthusiasted in the slightest but kept his voice even. "I am prepared for that."

For the next hour Nasuada, Orrin and Ristarth barraged Windshield with question regarding different aspects of his species, from their longevity to their culture. The alien ambassador made clear distinguishing between the Autobot and Decepticon factions. Orrin inquired something curious that Eragon himself had never wondered before:

"Optimus Prime has informed us that your species undergoes a metamorphosis from protoform into adulthood. However he did not relayed any details. Could you elaborate on this subject?"

Windshield took an unneeded breath:

"Once a protoform reaches the age of 100 stellar cycles - or 'years' as you say - ,at any time, our frame begins to radically transform. Our shape changes and we grow into giant size. After the metamorphosis is complete, it is common for Cybertronians to adopt a new name, to mark the 'rebirth'."

"And one final question," Nasuada narrowed her eyes; she was coming to a point, Eragon knew it. "What is your age?"

That caught Windshield off guard but he shrugged slightly when he responded.

"I am 98 of your years." if the sovereigns were surprised, they did not revealed it. After dealing with elves, dragons and other undying sentient beings, who appeared young but were older than any human, this did not leave them stunned.

Once the presentations were over, Optimus, Eragon and Saphira retreated through the groundbridge. Orrin and Risthart returned to their devices and left Windshield with the Queen and the ever-silent Vanir.

"There is one remaining issue we must attend to." Nasuada looked him over. "To keep you concealed in the palace would be treating you as a prisoner, an outrageous insult to you as our guest. Our the master spellcaster of the court is loyal and I am certain he is abilitated to conjure some sort of human glamour that would conceal your nature."

"I don't think that will be necessary, Your Majesty." Windshield's frame glowed and in an instant, his holoform gave him the appearance of a young 17-year-old. "This will most definitely do."

* * *

><p>Later, when the sun was beginning to sprout of the horizon, Windshield crossed paths with Vanir while exploring the palace. The black-haired elf remained in the corridor, impassively looking at him. It occurred to the protoform that Vanir may have been watching him for some time. And surely the Queen had her own methods to keep an eye on the new ambassador.<p>

Windshield recalled that Vanir never uttered a word during the meeting and that he hadn't complimented or introduced himself to the elf, only to the sovereigns. He had been told that manners and etiquette were highly praised among the elves.

"_He probably thinks I was being disrespectful on purpose_." mentally chastising himself, Windshield respectfully approached the elf and switched to the Ancient Language. He didn't know how the elven greeting so he improvised. "Greetings, Ambassador Vanir. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Be cautious, Windshield of another world." Vanir responded coldly. "For wind makes a poor shield."

He turned back andretreated, leaving the young Autobot puzzled and uncomfortable. He didn't know what the elf meant with that. Was he mocking his name? Or just reciting an enigma as a pun of his name? The elf's tone of voice, though, indicated he didn't like him. And certainly that would reflect on the Elven Queen Arya.

"Scrap! I'm already making bad impressions." he cursed himself.

* * *

><p>The sunset looked much different than it was on Cybertron, Windshield thought. In his homeworld, the setting sun was smaller and of a glowing white. From Ilirea, it looked like he was watching the orange orb by a large window that was the cave-like reentrância covering most of the city.<p>

The protoform ambassador was at a vast garden in the citadel, wearing his holoform as always. To anyone he appeared a raven-haired youth with blue eyes and slightly muscular stature. His holographic illusion bore rich robes clothes of a member of high nobility.

Strange these humans, separating themselves into hierarchical castes, identified by their clothing. Before the War for Cybertron, everyone had an unerasable code imprinted on their chassis with the mark of their caste. Megatron and Optimus found a way to remove those permanent marks when they began their joint liberation movement.

"A nice view, is it not?" a feminine voice asked behind him.

Windshield turned around startled, with thoughts of Decepticons stalking him in the foreign place. He immediately relaxed to see a young woman dressed in a green dress of high nobility.

Her violet eyes were uncannily reminded Windshield of..._him_.

"Are you not going to reply? You should know it is impolite to keep a lady waiting, _Windshield_?" she smirked deviously, having put a great emphasis on the name.

"Wha...No, you're mistaken, lady. I am Orval Trunarcson of the House Frilk." he used the alias the High Queen had granted him. No one in the Royal Court knew who Orval Trunarcson was and Nasuada cut off their advances to learn more about the unofficial ambassador.

"Please, Windshield. You are frightened to have your identity discovered, and I see through your fear like air." the woman's chuckle let a coldness race through his spark. "You can call me Elva."

"Excuse me. I have to go." he got up and walked away a bit shakily.

"Your greatest fear is true, you know." she spoke again, her voice making him halt. "Your brother Skysword, whose eyes are so similar to my own, is here. And just like all those friends you haven't seen for so long, your sworn enemy has grown. Be cautious, Windshield."

He ran away. But was it because of her darkly amused tone or the possibility that his corrupted, malevolent brother was here on this planet?

* * *

><p>"Perceptor, you asked to see me?" Eragon walked into the scientist's lab. He was turned to his work table so Eragon only saw his back.<p>

It had been over a week after the Battle for Farthen Dûr and only now had the head Rider some free time to see Perceptor. He had asked Eragon to meet him whenever his schedule allowed him. To discuss a subject regarding the Rider's blue sword.

"Eragon, welcome!" Perceptor turned to him and greeted in his typical rich, educated voice. "I have been expecting you for some time, but then I got so much absorbed in my research. I assume you are here at my request to discuss the metal of Brisingr." he pointed to the sword in Eragon's belt.

"Aye, you gave me the impression you know something about its steel."

"First, would you please tell me what is that blade forged of?"

Eragon proceeded to make a summarized story of the steel falling from the stars founded by the ancient elf smith Rhunön. How she used her discovery - which she dubbed 'brightsteel' - to forge all of the swords of the Shur'tugal. He even demonstrated Brisingr ability to set itself on fire on command.

Perceptor asked especially details regarding the brightsteel's appearance and properties. When he was done, Perceptor turned back to his work and pulled something out of a storage.

"Tell me Eragon, is this brightsteel similar to _this_?" and he showed him a large chunk the taller and thicker than a fat horse, with the color and texture of corroded iron. It was brightsteel!

"Yes, that is it!"

"This, Eragon - this what you call 'brightsteel' - is an old ore synthesised by our race, for millions of years ago. Its name in cybertitanium, an ancient alloy, now completely outdated and replaced by newer, improved versions. It was utilized in the forging of melee weapons."

"Dragons' storm! You _create_ brightsteel!"

"Not quite, Eragon. We synthesized the ore by mixing different kinds of natural, simpler ores at molecular level. In anyway, as I said, cybertitanium is very much outdated. Your Rider swords are more advanced than any other steel in this planet, but they are still not efficient to cut our metal hides. That is why you could not injure the Decepticons with your blades."

"Then how did this ore found its way on Du Weldenvarden?"

"In this case we can only conjugate and deduce, though I doubt the truth is hard to uncover. You see, cybertitanium was discontinued in the last centuries of the Golden Age, before our civilization began to dwindle. In that time our race possessed an extensive Federation throughout the stars. Our territory probably reached close to this planet.

"It would be logical that a large shipment of cybertitanium may have had an accident and the cargo was lost in space. A chunk could have wandered for eons until it fell onto your planet." Perceptor finished his theorizing but Eragon was just starting his.

"But that means" the Rider thought as he talked. "that you possess the more recent ores that can match Decepticon armor. Can you produce that ore? Can it be forged into Rider swords?"

His mind was pondering at an exhilarating speed. During the battle he regretted he could only fight with spells and not with muscles like the dragons did. Yet if he had a sword that could cut open Cybertronian armor, even if the damage he did was little, the playing field would be levelled.

"If Optimus agrees, then yes." Perceptor chuckled.

* * *

><p>Some connections are revealed! Now we know why <strong>King Palancar<strong> and his people left their homeland and colonized **Alagaësia**, it was the **Ra'zac** and the **Lethrblaka** all along. But **Shockwave** was the mastermind behind the whole operation! And now the old cyclops can do magic, but fortunately the other Cons can't.

In** Eldest**, **Oromis** says that no one can't draw energy from sources that are not organic life-forms. So the energy of Cybertronians, even if its immense, is useless for spells. But Shockwave found a way around this problem.

**Windshield** has a Decepticon brotherwho used to be Megatron's disciple! As for **Skysword**, I think this was a pretty good introduction. His role and Windshield's will be expanded further.


	7. Con Job

The fight isn't much detailed, this chapter is mostly about working relationships and the reaction of the people.

* * *

><p><strong>METAL GIANTS<strong>

**'Con Job**

As Eragon had promised Nasuada, the Autobots were passing instruction onto the Riders of how to defeat Decepticons. To the older students and Elders, it was a crash course on basics of Cybertronian biology and develop spells that could affect it.

But to the younger ones who couldn't yet use magic, Ironhide suggested what he called a 'small mind-training'. After deliberation, Eragon agreed to have the most rebellious Rider recruits to an old Autobot veteran who had the position of a 'Drill Instructor'.

Eragon found the concept amusing:

"I suppose an instruction like that could be useful. Never before were Riders taught how to drill properly." he had jested.

That was why the teenage recruits Oswalv, the human, Rillaën, the girl elf, and Uthivir, the dwarf, had woken up at the crack of dawn and presented themselves before an old mech in beige green colors, with a cygar in his mouth, Kup **(G1)**.

"I know you don't know why you're here, fresh metal." he spoke roughly. "To be honest, I don't give a 'Con's aft what you're thinking right now. What matters is that you're here to learn what matters. And your guide though this nightmarish scrapheap that will be your instruction is me, Kup Minor! Any of you maggots has a problem with that?"

Oswalv lift his hand, half-tentatively:

"Uh...I don't under-" he was cut off by an angry snarl from Kup:

"In MY bootcamp, the first thing a recruit learns is that the word 'I' is FORBIDDEN. There is no 'I', there is only the recruit. So the recruit will refer to themselves in the third person. As in 'this stupid recruit doesn't understand!'. Understood?"

"Understood." Oswalv cried out. "This stupid recruit doesn't understand!"

"This stupid recruit doesn't understand..._what_, maggot? Don't you know how to address a senior officer?!"

"Uh...This stupid recruit doesn't understand, master!" if Oswalv was trying to get Kup more aggravated, he succeeded.

"Don't call me 'master' or any of that 'ebrithil' scrap! I am not your master. I am your shadow, I am the ugly, angry mug you'll see from dawn until dusk and even in your dreams! UNDER-SLAGGIN'-STOOD?"

"Understood, sir!" Oswalv stood rigid like an old trunk. "This stupid recruit doesn't understand, sir."

"Then speak up, recruit!"

"...Why are you sir treating us like scoundrels?" Oswalv was fearful that would only anger Kup even further, but to his unending relief, it did not. The Drill Instructor moved his gaze to focus on the three of them.

"Everyone single one of you believes you don't deserve treatment like this. Well, I newsflash! Your Commander-and-Chief entrusted a part of your instruction to me. When I'm through with you, you'll quickly realize something: You will take treatment like this AND LIKE IT!"

Kup moved onto the next trainee, the beautiful elf girl Rillaën. Kup's face came within arms reach of her body, and the young elf was clearly disturbed.

"You're nervous, fresh metal! Do I frighten you?"

"Yes, sir. Quite much."

"Well, Holy Mother of Solus Prime on the tip of a Predacon's twisted tail!" he grunted "I am your ally. If I scare you so much, what good will you be against those Decepticon scum?"

She didn't answer and Kup neared ever close, his old optics on her young, tiny eyes.

"You know why I get my face so slaggin' close to you? Because a recruit such as you doesn't even own the space around herself ... That is the DRILL INSTRUCTOR'S SPACE!"

"Then we are nothing?" Uthivir, the dwarf made the grievous mistake of saying that out loud and out-of-turn. And when Kup threw him a murderous, passionless look, the trainee knew he had screw it up. With ominous calm, Kup addressed him:

"Listen up, you two-layered scraplet fart spiked with Toxic En sprouted on Unicron's slaggin' ARMPIT! In my bootcamp, _I_ say when you can talk. _I_ say when you think. _I_ say when you can eat, drink, sleep or take AN EXHAUSTS DUMP!" Kup leaned his scarred faceplates on Uthivir. "You got one thing right, maggot: YOU! ARE! NOTHING! Your mother should have swallowed you! You look like an abortion! You remind me of Rust Cancer: slow, ugly and completely unwanted!"

That last insult made Oswalv choke on a laugh that he was too slow to hold in. Kup turned his snarling face to him but not in time to see his lips moving.

"Who laughed?! Who the f $% just laughed?!" nobody answered though the Minor knew perfectly well who the perpetrator was. "Fine, I guess it was the ghost of Durza, the friendly Shade!"

"All of you, maggots! Mugs on the ground and give me forty! NOW!"

The training that recruits received from their masters put all apprentices in top form, therefore the forty push-ups were not as exhausting as they would be to someone else, especially not to Rillaën.

"What is this?" he pointed to the Autobot symbol on his chestplate. This one possessed three sets of prongs, one on each side. Rillaën was the only one who raised her hand, seeing as only she had reasonably studied the Autobot culture:

"That is the symbol of the Autobot Elite Guard."

"WRONG! This is the mark of one bot who has seen death, fought death, and spat greasy oil on the face of death. All in the name of the innocents we protect. Many novice, stupid Autobots say being part of the Elite Guard is all about honor! Bah! What do they know? They're fraggin' novices!

"The Elite Guard is nothing about honor, or glory. It's about doing what is right and just, again and again and again and again. Even if it sends you prematurely to the scrapheap. Or even if you live long enough to to wind up as an old, paranoid rust-bucket like yours truly."

Kup paused for a moment and let that sink in. When he spoke again, it was in a more patient, less rough voice:

"Which one is more important to win a fight: strength or speed?"

"Strength." Uthivir voiced and Oswalv nodded. "One needs strength to mortally stab an enemy, sir."

"Wrong!" a bit of Kup's harshness came back. "Does it take that much strength to push a blade into the enemy's vitals? No, not much. Anyone can do just so long they can wield a sword. That means you enemy will also be able to stab you with ease.

"That's where speed comes from. Speed of servo, or speed of hand, as you say it." he waved off his cy-gar. "Your enemy can't stab you if you stab them first.

"War is all about cold calculation, but battle is passion and fury, like a frenzying fever in the processor. In battle, a lot can happen in a fraction of a nanoklik. Your movements have to be as fast as that."

Rillaën lift her hand and Kup allowed her to speak:

"But sir, in battle rushing into action without thinking of the outcome would be unwise. What to do in that situation?"

Kup smiled. He actually did, his dental gripping the cy-gar in place.

"The answer to that is speed, of course. But not speed of hand. Like I said, battle is like an out-of-control freight ship, going a light-year per cycle. Like your movements, you minds must also work that quickly. Speed of processor, or speed of mind to you.

"In a battle, analyzing all the information around you and coming up with the best way to kill your enemy, all in a nanoklik, must become as instinctive as breathing. That is what the old bots like myself call 'quick-wit'."

Kup proceeded to explain a series of exercises meant to put the trainees under pressure and trying to find the solution as quickly as possible.

Several dozens of meters away, Rodimus Major, Eragon and the blue-wolf elf Blödhgarm observed. The organics didn't need their keen hearing when Kup mostly barked sonorously.

"His methods are as harsh as his tongue." Blödhgarm observed with a frown of distaste.

"But the results are worthwhile, I assure you." Rodimus voiced. "Kup is an expert when it comes to infusing discipline in even the most irresponsible youngsters."

"As long as he does not transforms them into mindless soldiers, as couth as rocks. The Shur'tugal as much peacekeepers and diplomats as they are warriors." Blödhgarm retorted and Rodimus glared at him, slightly offended.

"I went through Kup's rough talking and training since I was a protoform, and I didn't turn out a mindless soldiers, as couth as a rock, did I?"

"Of course not." the elf replied curtly. He had meant no offense to Rodimus, honestly.

But Blödhgarm still looked down upon Eragon's decision to allow the recruits to train with this specific Autobot veteran. The elves put a great emphasis on etiquette and the Dragon Riders were seen as their foremost contact with the rest of Alagaësia, not to mention they were highly respected among their people.

For an elf Rider to be training as an ill-bred, rough-talking oaf would be disastrous and outrageous!

"I admit" Rodimus tried to appease Blödhgarm's wariness. "that Kup can be a pain-in-the-aft, but he is good at what he does."

Eragon chose that moment to finally speak. "Being a pain-in-the-aft?"

Rodimus broke into laughter which Eragon followed suite. Only Blödhgarm remained awkwardly quiet.

"Good one! But seriously now, I know Kup. The guy was the only guardian I had and he raised me all the way through. At first I didn't like him, but I learnt underneath that rough and tough hide is a bot with the spark in the right place, who always looks after his trainees.

"Kup knows what he does. He has been churning out good mechs and femmes ready for battle vorns before the war. And you have to admit that whole talk about 'quick-wit' is true."

"I spoke to him before granting permission to train those three. I trust Kup almost as much as I trusted Brom. Those two are very much alike; old and grouchy." Eragon allowed a smile on his face.

* * *

><p>In the dark of the night, Branmer wabbled out of the tavern of Therinsford, ready to pass out drunk. It had been a night of carouse in the small town of Palancar Valley. Unlike Carvahall, Therinsford hadn't changed after the end of the age of Galbatorix. The settlement continued a disarrayed arrangement of houses and buildings. The only change had been the town now was under the command of earl Roran Garrowson, who ruled stern but mercifully.<p>

Not that Branmer cared for that. All he cared was for a bottle of the oldest rum he could buy. So drunk he was he didn't hear footsteps sneaking up from behind him.

Behind Branmer, the holoform of Thundercraker shot lightning from its hand and knocked the man unconscious. Next, Thundercracker picked up the human and flew concealed in the darkness of the sky.

* * *

><p>"You summoned me, Your Majesty?" Windshield bowed to Nasuada accordingly. A month had passed since Optimus entrusted him with this assignment as Autobot liaison to the human realms.<p>

"Yes, there is a matter we must attend to and your assistance may be needed." Nasuada wasn't alone with him in the conference room. A third person, a man dressed in black armor, with three silver runes in the ancient language carved in the chestplate. The man possessed a long, blond, braided bear like that of a dwarf. Yet, he was definitely human, given his tall height. His hair was long as well and whitening with age but he still appeared to hold much of the strength of youth.

"You already know Sir Klaus Murnason, the leader of the Du Gata Arget and most powerful and loyal spellcaster of the Court."

"I am but humble servant, Your Majesty." Klaus spoke with smooth courtesy. The Du Gata Arget - meaning 'The Silver Path' - were the group of loyal wizards that kept the order of the magicians in the human realms and watched them in case they were using their abilities for foul purposes. The three insignias in the black armor were the initials of the name.

Though the Dragon Riders were recovering their strength, they were still too few to return fully to their old role of keeping the peace in Alagaësia. That was handled, for now, by the Du Gata Arget.

Klaus was one of the few people already aware of Windshield's identity and purpose. Nasuada trusted him implicitly and Klaus had sworn in the language of magic not to divulge that information. But the young Cybertronian didn't drop his holoform, preferring to keep the disguise at all times.

"Sir Klaus." he bowed in respect and the man retributed in kind. Windshield joined them at the round table.

"As you may already know, in the last three weeks, people have been disappearing all over the coastal settlements." Nasuada pointed to a large map displayed on the wall. Windshield had taken time to learn the basic locations and geography of the land, and also the general knowledge of its people. "In the beginning, the ships that left Teirm and Narda simply vanished at sea and only wrecks were discovered afterwards, but no bodies or survivors. It was unsettling to Lord Risthart and I, but nothing that seemed supernatural.

"Then the same began to happen with Kuasta, then this problem spread like a plague into Surda. Feinster, Aroughs and Eoam on Beirland Isle. King Orrin is concerned that Reavstone may be next so he had all ships to remain in that port.

"Unfortunately this is bringing a heavy toll on the economy of all our nations. But the situation aggravated as people continued to disappear, one by one, in those cities even without going to sea. They simply vanish during the night and are never again seen in the day."

Windshield listened attentively while looking at the map, drawing a mental picture. This mass disappearances started from north to south, city by city. Whoever was doing this had started shyly, only to grow bolder with time.

"I understand, but in what can I be of use?"

Nasuada motioned for Klaus who continued:

"Du Gata Arget promptly began to act upon the first few disappearances on land while the Riders investigated on the sea. But the problem is the fully assumed Riders are still very few and are spread thin. One night ago, one of our agents localized in Palancar Valley heard of a man named Branmer who vanished during the night and immediately went to investigate. He discovered a witness to the disappearing." Klaus showed him a mirror that reflected a strange shape vaguely familiar in a dark sky.

"The witness was returning home when he saw this shape for just a second before flying away. Do you know what that is?"

"Yes, I do." Windshield nodded. "Many would recognize this with a glance. This is definitely a Seeker, a Decepticon flier. Of that I have no doubt."

"So the Decepticons are capturing innocent civilians. But to where and to what purpose?"

"I couldn't hazard a guess, Your Majesty. Decepticons wouldn't bother with ramson as your nations have nothing they would want. If you did have such a thing, they would just take it."

That statement made Nasuada tensed up. While it hadn't been Windshield's intention, he had just reminded her the Decepticons were an enemy they had no way of fighting off and could crush Alagaësia if they wished so.

"I have decided to consult with Eragon to join the Du Gata Arget in resolving this outrageous subject. In what will the Autobots stand for?"

"Optimus Prime will help, have no doubt of that." Windshield responded vehemently. "Our leader never tolerated the Decepticons abusing other life-forms."

"I rejoice to hear of that." Nasuada smiled.

* * *

><p>Carvahall had changed completely. The old village had been reduced to rubble by the soldiers of Galbatorix and, when the natives returned after the defeat of the mad king, it was reborn. Only this time, it was much better.<p>

The village had grown larger, boosted by the prosperity. The buildings were of sturdy, brown wood and resilient to the elements. Two watchtowers rested on opposite outskirts of the village, always occupied by an attentive sentinel. Atop of a hill was a small, humble but strong castle, supplied to house all the citizens in case of an attack to the village.

In that day, at noon, the man filling his shift at the watchtower saw a distinguishable blur in the southeast sky gaining shape and size. He immediately blew his warning horn, which made the population drop their chores and stood on alert.

"The Dragon Riders are here! The Dragon Riders are here! Ismira is back!" the sentinel shouted, recognizing the white dragon, Luana.

The people cheered enthusiastically at the return of their proud Rider. Ismira received their cheers and waved at them in the air, though Luana didn't stop her flight. Dragon and Rider continued to soar the skies to north.

A few ways from the village was the most majestic house of Carvahall. The house and farm of Earl Roran, Lady Katrina and their family. Though they were the rulers of Palancar Valley, they disdained their own titles and prefered to be simply treated as friends by the other villagers.

Roran was leading the horse Snowfire with his son Garmond, ploughing the field for a new crop. The boy was the spitting image of Roran, except the eyes that were the mother's. Somewhat muscular for a thirteen year old, Garmond wanted to become a blacksmith, and had the body for that.

Without warning, Garmond shouted "Ismira! Ismira is here!"

Roran followed his gaze to see the white dragon diving down to a clearing by the farm. Dropping his work, father and son ran there. Out of the house, two females ran towards the clearing. They were Katrina, the mother and Gerda, the middle sister of Ismira and Garmond.

Luana landed her large body majestically and Ismira leaped out of the saddle in perfect display of acrobatics.

"Show off!" Garmond teasingly accused. The family wrapped the Rider in a tight hug, afterwards also giving their welcomes to Luana.

For the last thirteen years, the oldest child of the family had spent most of her time training in the far way home of the Dragon Riders. On occasions, after Luana became an experienced flier, they both returned to Carvahall to see the family and share tales with the village. Now they were fully accomplished Rider and Dragon and could visit more often.

"Ismira!" Katrina kissed both her cheeks and forehead. The mother's smile fainted when she spotted a long, thin scar running from the left jawline along the cheek. "Heavens! Where did you get this?"

"Oh! Uh, just a small accident on a mission. Nothing worth of concern." she appeased them though the parents frown a little, yet her siblings complimented her on the scar.

"It looks good on you. Now you have a war scar, like Father!" Garmond said.

"It completes you, pointy-ears." Gerda used the nickname given to Ismira by the siblings. One summer when Ismira returned from her training, her ears had started showing signs of changing into a sharper frame. That was when Gerda came up with the name. Now her appearance was half-elven, though never as much Eragon Shadeslayer's.

"Daughter, please don't return to us marked like a war veteran." Roran spoke seriously. "Unlike what your siblings say, battle scars are not something to crave for."

"I am careful, father. But Ebrithil Eragon once told me none can go through life unscathed. Especially for us Riders and Dragons who live long lives of bearing the pain of others."

"Enough. You are with us again, daughter." Katrina sighed. "Let's move our minds from those thoughts and celebrate. How long can you two stay?"

"At least a week."

"No more chores for today." Roran declared, much to everyone's surprise. Such moments were very rare, the man of the house looked down upon laziness. "Today we rejoice at the reunion of our family."

A part of Roran's joy turned bitter at the realization that _not_ all of the family was here today. It had been twenty-years since he last saw his cousin and brother-of-heart. He turned away from the nostalgia. Katrina was right, this was a day worthy of celebrating.

"_Keep your ears wide open._" Luana communed to her Rider. "_And your eyes and nostrils, too. We are here on a hunt."_

"_I know. Arcee and Mirage are already on the village. They'll let us know if they find anything._"

* * *

><p>"State yer business, strangers." the old man standing guard at the entrance of Carvahall grunted.<p>

"I am Miraj, and this is my sister, Harci." said the arriving man with a woman by his side. They were both dressed like somewhat prosper peasants and carried themselves with pride. "We're from Daret and we're here to see if your village has any potential trading partners. Just business."

"Alright, jus' don't get in trouble." the guard allowed them passage.

"Thank you." Harci's gratitude was boosted with pride rare in human women.

The villagers were mostly on their own workshops, some of the younger children out playing and the older assisting their elders. Occasionally Miraj and Harci would draw a glance from someone but nothing too much. The new-arrivers were mostly ignored.

"Let's separate and cover more ground. Ask normal questions to the citizens. We need to know if there has been any sign of Cons here." Harci whispered to him.

"Whatever you say, _sister_." Miraj shrugged and they split.

In truth, 'Miraj' and 'Harci' are actually the holoforms of Mirage **(RID)** and Arcee. They had been sent to Carvahall, along with Ismira and Luana, to investigate any Decepticon activity on Palancar Valley.

Currently, Riders and Autobots had been split into small joint teams and roamed the places where the disappearing on the human realms have been happening. Just Nasuada, Orrin and Risthart were aware their territories now had alien investigators. They had only consented with this plan after they interviewed the chosen Autobots for the task. Optimus had opted to send his most cautious and subtle soldiers.

"For a moment, I saw the man's face turning a red light." a young woman of blonde hair said to a man who shared her hair color and some other features. Maybe he was her brother.

"Hope, it does not matter what you saw. That man is a charlatan, what would mother and father say if they saw you gambling?"

"Albriech, I was not gambling! I was passing by on my chores and saw the man's eyes glowing red for a moment."

"_Red glowing eyes, hu? Could that have been a Con's holoform?_" Harci frowned and decided to approached the siblings.

"Excuse me, young lady. Could you please tell me where this charlatan is?"

"Why does it matter to you?" the young man Albriech asked with a quirk eyebrow.

"Let's just say I may have a few words to exchange with him." noticing the steel in her words, Albriech relented. He told her where the find the man and she went her way.

Harci noticed some of the people were running around, uttering about Ismira and a feast to night in her honor.

"_The returned hero caused quite a stir._" Harci allowed a small smile before turning serious. _"Hopefully that won't scare off the Cons until we learn what they're doing._"

She turned around a corner and hid herself before the charlatan could spot her. The man was completely unnoticeable. His clothing was no different than those of the locals and his face was clearly natural looking. He sat on a bench against the wall of a house, presenting a game of a gem and three cups.

"Come everyone! Try your fortune against Swindal and his lucky gem!" announced the man to the small crowd around him. The man had already got some loot from his customers. But Harci could see the trick. Swindal could control the gem and moved it into another cup when nobody was looking.

But that was not what interested more to her. For Harci could see what nobody else could; that this 'Swindal' was an holoform just like her. The holoform of the con-artist Combaticon Swindle.

"Oh, sorry! You lose!" Swindal mirthfully took the wager of another of his victims. "By law of probabilities, next win is yours. Anyone else wants to test their fortune?"

"_If I go there, Swindle will know its me and might just pull back. That way we'll never catch the Cons red-handed."_ she resigned herself to walk away and let the Decepticreep keep exploiting these people. For now. Arcee hated to leave bad stuff go unpunished and Swindle was asking for it. "_Just you wait, 'Con!._"

Later she met Miraj again and informed him of her discovery. He himself had heard rumors of the disappearance of a Branmer fellow on Therinsford.

"If Swindle is in town, isn't there a chance the other Combaticon goons are here?"

"I doubt it. Swindle has the habit of going around conning others when his team isn't close by." she argued. "Plus he said he would be here for the whole week. There's no way Megatron would allow him such leeay. He's here to hunt humans, no doubt."

"Did you get his current location?" Mirag referred to the actual location of Swindle, not his holoform. Since Cybertronians can only keep the holoform active and outside of vehicle mode if they are still.

"I couldn't without getting spotted. The only one who can get close to him without alarm is a human."

"Then it's great we have one of those on our side. I'm working on a gadget that might help us track down that retro-rat. But we're gonna have to operate tonight before that party they're planning to throw Ismira." and Mirag informed her of his idea.

* * *

><p>Lost in the woods where Eragon once kept little Saphira, Ismira walked both relaxed and attentive. Relaxed for being surrounded by nature, by so much life in so many invisible shapes from the trees, to the squirrels on top of them, to the insect beneath the ground. Attentive for the chance of being followed which she used several spells to verify she wasn't.<p>

She came into a clearing well hidden in the center of the forest. It was there that the vehicle forms of Arcee and Mirage were standing. Ismira had previously equipped the clearing with several wards to make them invisible and unheard by anyone outside. Also should any person approach the clearing, they would receive a mental impulse to turn back.

It was sunset when Ismira joined them and soon the party on Carvahall would start.

"Ready for your party, birthday girl?" Arcee played.

"It's not for my birthday. It's just been a long time since I've been home."

Mirage transformed and kneeled down to hand Ismira a small contraption the size of a babe's thumbnail. She took it from the tip of his index finger.

"_It's amazing that such large creatures can conceive such tiny devices_."

"I've been working on this for hours. It's a tracking chip that will stick to Swindle's holoform and then send a virus that follows the trail to his actual location. I made it to be stealthy so he won't notice his body's bugged."

"Bugged?" Ismira chuckled at the term. "If I didn't know better, I would imagine this device would fill Swindle's body of insects."

"Whatever." Mirage was impervious to humor. "But there's a catch. To make the tracking virus stealthy, I had to make it slow. Even if you inject it now, only by this time tomorrow it will sniff him out."

"But Mirage, if we don't find him now, the Decepticon may abduct someone by then!" Ismira was alarmed at the idea of someone she knew from childhood being taken away by these malevolent Metal Giants and never been seen again. What kind of inheritor of the legacy of the Shur'tugal would Ismira Katrinasdaughter be, if she allowed that to happen in her watch?

"I know," Mirage emitted a sigh, though it was hard to tell since he had no face presently. "but there's nothing else we can do about it. The only thing we can do until that fragger is found is to watch out."

"So Mirage and I will keep a sharp optic on the village during the night." Arcee assured her. "We'll do our best to watch out for your people."

"Thank you, Arcee." Ismira then had a thought. "You know, I can create an illusory form of myself too, albeit it can't touch or lift anything, unlike your holoforms. But I can't control it if I'm too far away from it.

"Since your powers work differently than mine, couldn't Swindle be far away, even with the illusory form here? What if he's hiding in Therinsford or somewhere further? Du Gata Arget could run into him."

Though Du Gata Arget were also investigating the problem, only the leader was aware of the Metal Giants. The agents were order if they discovered anything unusual to contact the closest Rider.

"Unlikely." it was Mirage who answered. "With the right equipment, any 'Con or 'Bot can project a holoform on Ilirea even if they're standing here. But the illusion is poor, transparent and useless.

"To be able to project a holoform capable of interacting with others, he has to be close enough to Carvahall. No, Swindle is definitely hiding around here."

* * *

><p>"Oh, well! You lose, lad." Swindal shrugged with feigned sympathy as a young man lost his money to the vicious game. The young man retreated scowling, the only one that was participating now. The small crowd that Swindal gathered for hours was gone, all busy assisting on the whatever celebration of tonight. "Market is closed for today. Maybe tomorrow."<p>

"Excuse me." a young peasant girl approached his small table. "May I try my fortune?"

"I was just leaving but what kind of mech...er, I mean, _man_ would I be if I refused such an audacious lady? How much are you willing to wager. If you win, keep your money and the gem" Swindal showed her the blue crystal gem that could only have been sculpted by a talented dwarf. It was small but no less precious.

"I bet ten crowns. My all money is worth it." the girl presented the money much to Swindal's delightment.

"I wasn't wrong when I said you were audacious. With a courage like that, surely fortune will smile upon you." Swindal placed the gem into the middle cup and began switching them with reflexes so fast that were almost unhuman.

When he was certain she wasn't looking, he slightly lifted the edge of the cup containing the gem and extracted it, intent to place it in another cup. This event happened in a fraction a second, so fast no human eye could accompany it.

The peasant girl uttered a words silently and the gem moved back to the original cup, without Swindal knowing!

"Now try it, young lady." Swindal gave a smirk, certain this was an easy victory.

"The middle one." she pointed.

"Oh, sorry but you guesses…" Swindle derisively lifted the cup, expecting it to be empty. To his bewilderment, the gem was in there. "right! What the scrap?!"

"Bless my fortune!" the girl cheered and took the gem without preambles. She stumbled and lost balance, catching Swindal's shoulder to steady herself.

"Hey, watch it, fleshling!" he snarled harshly, not even caring if his strange insult would draw attention. The girl ignored that and took her leave.

When she was out of earshot, she hide herself between two solitary buildings and dropped the magical illusion of a disguise, revealing to be Ismira.

"_All it took was one word in the Ancient Language to make the gem move back to the original cup. How much I enjoyed seeing that thieving cur's look!_" she communed with Luana, not hiding her mirth. The dragon had been out all day hunting in the Spine.

"_If anyone tried to cheat me, I would have rip them apart from neck to groin_." Luana retorted. "_You should follow my example. That would make certain they would never engage in dishonesty. Or anyone else who heard of your retribution_."

"_Thank you for the suggestion. I might just try that one day._" Ismira had no intention of doing so. "_Either way, the goal was to implant the device into the thief and its done._ _Now we wait._"

"_And celebrate_." Luana added. She had landed in the village's square, where the party was starting. "_Too bad they have no faelnirv or dwarven mead. Human beverages are poor in taste, like drinking stale water where algae proliferate as flies on a three-day old carcass._"

"_Now there's a drink I wouldn't have, unless death itself forced me to._" Ismira opined.

On her way to the party she passed a young boy with ragged clothes. He was the son of the coal-digger, the poorest of the poor in Carvahall. She walked up to him and handed him the gem.

"This is for the coal your family has supplied to the feast." Ismira said delicately. "And please tell your father I do not care if the gem's value outweighs the price of the coal. Arguing with a Dragon Rider is a lost cause."

"Lady Ismira!" the boy squeaked with teary eyes. She smiled in return:

"If your father's pride prevents him from accepting this gem tell him the Dragon Rider Ismira recognizes he deserves it more than its original owner."

The boy left after a profound bow of gratitude. She proceeded into the square of the village, the long wooden tables displayed all sort of traditional cuisine of Palancar Valley, many of which Ismira had missed. Amongst the party, the coal-digger's family came to thank her.

"Ismira, good eyes see you!" Albriech complimented. He and his brother Baldor were now living in their own houses with their wives and children. Hope, Albriech and Baldor were childhood friends of Ismira, though their friendship deteriorated a bit with her long periods of absence in Du Fläo abr Daburthr.

"Three, sister." Gerda told her. "Three marriage proposals and I turned them down all."

"Much to my disappointment. One day you will have to settle down, young lady." Katrina said, somewhat serious.

"Mother, had you accepted the first good marriage opportunity you had, you'd have never wed Father." Ismira came in defending her sister.

Gerda was on the thestrol of adulthood and had talent and disciple. She was a bit round and cute, unlike Ismira who was strong and beautiful. Yet Gerda's hand was much sought out in Carvahall and Therinsford, be it for her cuteness, her promising future, or the prestige of marrying into the ruling family of the valley.

"I stand corrected." Katrina sighed half-amused, half-exasperated. "But don't forget a chance for joy may slip between your fingers because you did not see it for what it was."

Those words were kept dancing in her mind, even as the celebrations proceeded with the songs of the Varden war against Galbatorix and the dancing. Even when she spoke and laughed with her siblings and parents, a part of her felt slightly guilty for using this visit on her beloved hometown as a 'decoy' from a mission.

* * *

><p>The morning sun rose lazily on the horizon, still covered by the proud mountains of the Spine. Ismira entered the magically shielded clearing where Arcee and Mirage had spent the night. Just like before, they were both in vehicle mode.<p>

Luana landed there and rested her white, glittering body. The presence of a large dragon made the space appear much smaller. Luana opened one golden eye to gaze at her Rider.

"Good morning, metal-heads." the Rider greeted.

"Good morning, oh mighty Rider." Arcee retorted.

Ismira took a few deep breaths and bent over, touching her forehead with her feet. She continued to perform ever more difficult exercises of flexibility. Each one she went through without tiring or difficulty.

"Morning training?" Arcee had quietly watched the exercises and only interrupted when she felt Ismira was done.

"It's called the Rimgar, or Dance of the Snake and Crane. Every elf and Rider performs these exercises before starting the day or preparing for a battle. Its composed of four levels of difficulty, each with a complete set of exercises." Ismira explained succinctly after doing the last exercises.

"I like that. You Riders really are tuned for battle." Arcee then had a thought. "But you know something I noticed, why don't you have any martial arts for hand-to-hand combat?"

"The Riders are taught to fight with a multitude of weapons, from sword, to maces, to bow, and to spears. There's also a training in hand-to-hand, the Umnla Gata." Ismira demonstrated a few poses. Arcee hummed:

"A good training of Circuit-Su would do you wonders. It's always best to have a weapon your enemies aren't counting on. Master Yoketron **(Animated)** - an old Autobot master of martial arts - was the one who taught me. If you want, I could teach you some moves."

"I'll hold you to that promise." Ismira smiled.

"If you ladies are done chit-chatting, we can talk about the mission." Mirage groaned.

"You were active this whole time, just spying on our talk?" Arcee sounded surprised and indignated.

"I'm not a Spy Changer for nothing, 'Cee." Mirage made a slight shrug with his front wheels. "Now onto business, the virus will reach Swindle's processor by noon and then clung to him like a cyberleach. Since its only purpose is to transmit that pit-spawned Con's location to us, his system won't alert him of any danger."

"_When we sense the prey's smell, we hunt!_" Luana growled, flashing her fangs in anticipation.

"No can do, big girl. When we find him, we _wait_ until he makes his move. We already established he's here to capture humans; sooner or later he will strike and when he does we'll be here to trap and snap him." Mirage explained patiently.

"_Fine. We stalk the prey until the right time_." Luana resigned.

* * *

><p>Later that night, Swindle's holoform was walking silently through the slumbering village. He stalked the sentry with a torch who had just left the watchtower. The sentry drew a spear when he heard the steps and turned like a wolf ready to attack:<p>

"Blast you! Don't sneak up behind an armed man like that!" the sentry looked at him closer, using the torch to clear his vision. "Aren't you that Swindal?"

"Why, yes that would be me!" the holoform smiled.

"Then go back to whatever rat-hole you crawled from, I am in no patience for your games." the sentry spat and turned away from him.

"Oh, but the game has just began. And you have lost." Swindal's body unleashed a lightning that hit the sentry square in the back. The man fell alive but deeply unconscious. Then the vehicular form of Swindle came rolling quietly.

Swindle is an SUV-like alien Assault Transport vehicle with a mounted turret. His bright yellow chassis bears bears some purple highlights. As a warrior, he is the weakest of the Combaticons and when alone, virtually nobody considers him a threat. Which is fine by Swindle; with an easy-going reputation like that he can weasel more people into his con schemes.

"One more fleshy souvenir lab rat coming up." he had his holoform put the man on the driver's seat and put the seat belts restraining the body. He took off into the night, looking for a secluded place from the village. In there, he would call for a groundbridge.

"Not so fast, 'Con!" Arcee came racing seemingly out of nowhere and blocked his way out. Swindle tried to go around but Mirage made himself invisible and cut him off on his escape.

"Surprise!" Mirage aimed his rifle with perfect accuracy. "Now handover the human gently and we can avoid any energon spilling."

"Not gonna happen, Autobot. See, I got reinforcements."

Right on cue, a groundbridge opened in the sky and Soundwave and a beige fighter jet with purple wings. The fighter jet descended and transformed. It was Blitzwing **(Animated)**, a triple-shifter who possessed three personalities. The dominant 'Icy' cold strategist, the short-tempered 'Hothead', and a total 'Random' nutcase. Each personality had a face of its own that rattled around in his head.

"You!" Mirage growled.

"Zat's right, Blitzwing iz here, Autoscum!" then his blue 'Icy' head spinned and changed into the red 'Hothead' one "And remember it! Cause it's ze last thing you're gonna hear before I..." then 'Hothead' span again to become the black-faced 'Random' "...express my feelings in a song!"

"Save it!" Mirage fired and Blitzwing countered with jets of fire from the twin cannons in his back.

Soundwave landed before Arcee and posed for battle. The motorcycle watched Swindle drive away with the captured human.

"We also have our reinforcements." she smirked.

An earth-shaking dragon roar echoed through all the Palancar Valley. Swindle once again found his way out cut. This time by a wall of fire, breath by Luana.

"Scrap!"

"Return him now!" Ismira growled from her mount. Swindle transformed and aimed his turret at them both.

"Or else what, fleshy!?"

Ismira acted quickly. She opted for one of the spells she and the other Elders, Eldunarí and Elves had composed together, with wisdom from the Autobots. It was designed to block the harmful energy shooting mechanism for just a second. It was enough to make the turret overload and explode in the Decepticon's servos.

"Slag it!" he threw away the scorched, molten remains of his gun. When Luana approached him barring her sharp teeth, Swindle tightened his grip on the prisoner. "One more step and I'll crush the insect!"

Ismira proceeded with a simple enchantment. She quickly uttered the words and some strange blinding lights, like multiple fireflies, zoomed around Swindle's sight.

"The scrap is this!?" the Decepticon's distraction was enough to Luana to charge against him. He dropped the watchman and Luana grabbed him safely. Her Rider strength allowed her to carry him with no difficulty.

"You're safe now, Yielfrig." she whispered to the sentry, an old childhood friend of hers.

* * *

><p>A few minutes before, the fight drew many of the villagers to awaken startled. The noises and ground shaking from outside made them wary of a possible attack. Men armed with hammers, butcher knives and other makeshift weapons out of their work tools stormed out. Some carried actual swords or bows and one or two women were armed as well.<p>

"By the Gods of the this and the Lost World!" Horst, the blacksmith of the village shouted.

Frightened, the villagers looked at the struggle between the Metal Giants and their proud, beloved Ismira riding on Luana. The Metal Giants were barely visible in the darkness of the light, faintly bathed by the illumination of Luana's fire.

"Take the children to the fortress, now!" Birgit, one of the fighting women, was a hard-iron women and a veteran of the Varden. Immediately the youngsters and the non-fighting women were driven to the fortification atop the hill.

The warriors remained stuck at the entrance of Carvahall. Watching the battle displaying right at their doorstep, but unable to do anything about it. It was a battle of giants and gods, and they were nothing more than ants, who could only hope the ferocity of the battle wouldn't destroy their anthill or them.

"Horst!" Ismira came running to them with a fitness that put any mortal athlete to shame. Even more, given she was carrying the knocked out sentry, who she handed to the blacksmith. "Take care of Yielfrig."

"Ismira! What in the name of Palancar is happening?" the man asked almost hysterical.

"I can't explain. We're in the middle of a battle!" and she hurried to rejoin Luana who was keeping Swindle at bay.

"Ismira Katrinasdaughter! Your father will be here at any moment and he will demand answers!" Horst shouted but Ismira didn't bother to respond.

Horst's prophecy turned reality when Roran appeared, mounting Snowfire, with his famous war hammer in his belt. He demanded an explanation of this 'nature madness from a lunatic's dream'.

"Stronghammer, your daughter and her dragon are fighting these monsters!" Baldor announced with wide eyes and sword in hand.

The people parted to allow their veteran earl to pass. He erupted on the front of the anxious warrior crowd to see an unbelievable nightmare.

"Don't you mean, _with_ these monsters!" he retorted seeing Ismira fighting beside a slender, blue Metal Giant with a feminine frame. It was true, his daughter and her dragon were fighting Metal Giants, alongside _other_ Metal Giants. He turned to Horst. "Have the children and women been taken to the fortress?"

"Aye! Ismira brought us Yielfrig. Gertrude is taking care of him." Horst fixed him with an intense glare. "Roran, I'm no coward to go run to my late mother's skirts, but I won't go charge against Giants in armor that even a Rider has trouble dealing with."

"_True enough_." Roran mentally sighed. None of the warriors wanted to cross into the battle line and he could not blame them. Once again, Roran saw himself in the battles with the Varden, watching elves and dragons and Riders fighting. How their powers made the world unjust for mortal men.

"Everyone, to the fortress!" he ordered. "Don't look at me like that. Staying here will do us no good. On the fortress we're better protected and ready to counterattack."

"Counter-attack?" someone cried out. "How are we supposed to even flinch those outlandish demons?!"

"GO!" he roared and they went like hurried sheep.

He turned one more look to the battle. Ismira and Luana were now in the sky, being chased by a giant bat-like creature made of metal. There was nothing he could do to fight those creatures. But he would be damned if he did not help his daughter!

* * *

><p>Luana were being chased by Laserbeak, the cassette the size of a small dragon. Ismira spells weren't having effect on him, for some reason.<p>

"_Its master must have taken precautions._" Ismira remembered their pursuer had been attached the faceless Decepticon's chest.

* * *

><p>"Aim it precisely." Roran ordered to the man handling the ballista. From all the villagers, he had the best aim and skill to handle the machine. It was equipped to fire an iron-head volley at great speed into the sky.<p>

The giant metal bat was chasing Luana and his daughter. They were going in a straight line and about to pass over the fortress. If only they could strike it down…the bat passed right on top of them!

"Fire!" the man shouted and released the volley.

* * *

><p>Laserbeak was about to fire its minigun. This time the dragon would not avoid the blast.<p>

Then the volley hit it in the bottom.

The weak metal didn't injure the cassette, but the impact did destabilize Laserbeak's flight. For a few seconds he lost control and when regained it, it was too late.

Luana turned around sharply and expelled a white firestorm that crippled the spy drone and it caused him to fall out of the sky. Laserbeak crash-landed, its thin armor molten and burning.

"_The skies belong to dragons!_" Luana roared victoriously.

* * *

><p>Soundwave had just beaten Arcee and prepared to slay her when a distress signal alerted him. Then he heard the dragon roaring.<p>

"_Laserbeak!_" he thought in concealed panic. He could no longer feel the signal of his cassette.

The white dragon roared, flying over the molten shell of Laserbeak. Soundwave remained impassively before giving Blitzwing and the injured Swindle the order to disengage and retreat. As he entered the groundbridge, he spared a hateful look behind his vizor to Rider and Dragon.

* * *

><p>Horst's house was the largest in the village, if Roran's doesn't count for being so far off. The village elders, Roran and Ismira had their meeting there. The inhabitants of Therinsford heard the night battle, even from the other end of Palancar Valley, and sent their own chosen leader and spokesman to the meeting.<p>

The villagers were a mix of frightened and outrageous demanding answers from the Rider Ismira:

"Ismira Katrinasdaughter, now that this madness has ended, will you deliver your promised explanation?" asked Gertrude, the healer who joined them after assuring Yielfrig would recover.

"Yes, Gertrude. Though my explanation will be somewhat lengthy, so I ask you all to bear with me." they all became silent and expectant, her father carried an unreadable gaze. "For some time, Alagaësia and the rest of the world beyond its borders have welcomed a new race: the Cybertronians. But unlike the elves, Urgals or us, they did not come from the sea but rather from another world, beyond the stars."

The assembly began gossiping and gasping their disbelief. To some like Gertrude and the man from Therinsford, horror was plastered on their faces. To others like Birgit, Horst and Ellain, simple incredulity. Roran's undecipherable face changed into the laters.

"As Alagaesia was embroiled in the war against the traitorous egg-breaker Galbatorix, so are the Cybertronians. Eragon Shadeslayer has wisely allied us with the peaceful faction of the Autobots, who like the Varden, fight for the future of their race free from tyranny.

"The ones who attempted to sequestre good Yielfrig were the warmongering Decepticons. They have already made an unprovoked attack on the capital of the Dwarves. With the help of the Autobots, we beat them back and saved Farthen Dûr. And tonight we have repeated that victory." she finished.

"Rider Ismira!" the man from Therinsford spoke with cold sweat running down his face. His eyes were clouded with fear. "How can you harbor these unnatural creatures?"

"I have already explained the Autobots are trusted allies, whose help was vital to fight the Decepticons in here and Farthen Dûr."

"These Metal Giants can burn all of our land!" the man protested. "You are supposed to protect Alagaësia from these monstrosities!"

"Not all of these Metal Giants are monsters."

"Yet none of them belongs in Alagaësia! The Dragon Riders should protect the land from unworldly fiends like these Metal Giants!" the man stood up and looked her with bloodshot eyes. "You claim these monsters are your allies, then that brands you a traitor to your own kind!"

Fast as an elf, Roran grabbed the man by his neck and shove his face into the hard table, his hammer just inches from his skull.

"Repeat those slander about my daughter, and I'll smash your brains into grub for the pigs!"

"Father, please let him go." she asked evenly and Stronghammer released the whimpering man. Birgit chose that moment to stand up:

"Ismira, I may not go as far as to accuse you of treachery to your own race, but even the word of a Rider offers little comfort in this situation.

"To the common peasant, the thought of Metal Giants that can travel freely through the land, sided with the knowledge that the Dragon Riders are still few and far away, is enough to drive them into a mad hysteria that demise is upon us.

"It would be preferable if Galbatorix rose back from the grave, at the vanguard of an army Shades."

The meeting ended a few hours later and Ismira left resigned and frustrated. Despite her best promises, the people continued frightened and doubtful of the Autobots. They saw no line between them and the Decepticons.

She left the house to meet with Luana who rested in the square. Katrina was sitting beside the dragon, distractedly stroking her pearl-white paw. The mother got up when she spotted Ismira approaching.

"Ismira, how did it go?" the daughter's weary sigh was all the answer she needed. "I saw the two Metal Giants carrying the remains of the metal bat away."

"I think half of the village stopped to watch that." Ismira's brother commented, passing by them with a bucket.

For the last hour, everyone was put to work to fix the little damage that was done to Carvahall. Just a few roofs burnt and no one injured. Yet the presence of Mirage and Arcee taking the remains of Laserbeak made the villagers as tense as a rabbit hiding in his burrow with a ravenous wolf outside. Even though the Autobots didn't pay the slightest attention to the villagers.

"What will you do now?"

"For now, Luana and I will assist with the chores and appease the people. Then we leave for Du Fläo abr Daburthr. Our mission here is accomplished."

"Even your visits are now part of your duty." Katrina sighed sadly and passed a gentle hand on her daughter's face . "Sometimes I wished you had never become Ismira, the proud Rider of Carvahall. I long for the days you were just Ismira, daughter of Katrina. A mother always longs for those days, time and again. But now, I think I have never lived those days with you."

The two women hugged lovingly under the watchful eye of Luana. Another hour passed and every bit of damage was fixed, save for that of the villagers' spirits. Everyone was gathered at the square to bid farewell to their heroine. Though their eyes held fear and not the awe and sometimes sadness Ismira saw in previous departures.

"Daughter." Roran came to her, his face showing fear for the future. An emotion that Roran Stronghammer wasn't known for.

"Be at peace, Father. Everything will be alright." she reassured him with a hug. But looking into the eyes of her whole family, her whole village even, she knew her promise was uncertain.

The world had become much greater than before.

She rode Luana, who took flight majestically, somewhat uplifting the souls of the people with her mighty beauty. She circled the village before making a line for south.

"_They know I was lying. Nothing will be alright._" Ismira sighed defeated. "_The mission was a success but we were discovered. By tomorrow, Queen Nasuada and King Orik will have to announce our pact with the Autobots. The humans won't like this. And the elves..._"

"_The pack of wolves preen themselves for having all prey in their territory at their mercy. But if a dragon moves onto them, they too become prey._" Luana said. "_The humans will learn the world has become much larger. Large enough for titans to walk upon it."_

"_This is not going to bode well. We must appeal to all our patience to avoid panic_." Ismira sighed. A while later, making sure they were soaring over an area where nobody could spot them, a groundbridge took them to Du Fläo abr Daburthr.

Luana came landingon one of the many nests meant for dragons in the outskirts of the city. Arcee was there in vehicular mode, waiting for them. Nowadays, Autobots were allowed to enter the city, though they seldom did that. Only the ones most familiarized with the Riders ever came in.

"Hey, how are you?" the motorcycle asked. Ismira still felt strange talking to a 'face' with only one large 'eye' of glass and no other features.

"Could be better. My people are intimidated. This has damaged the trust of some in the Shur'tugal."

"Sorry to hear that."

"Do not be. Ebrithil Eragon said it was but a matter of time before the rest of Alagaësia learnt of your existence." Ismira sighed.

"Say," Arcee spoke carefully, as if not knowing how to say it. "I know you have a lot on your mind right now. But there's something you should know."

"First of all, congratulations on taking out Laserbeak. Soundwave's pet was his best spy drone." Arcee's congrats sounded less than enthusiastic, which Ismira prophesied as bad.

"Though that victory might just come back and bite you in the behind. Soundwave was very fond of all his cassettes. During the War for Cybertron, whenever an Autobot destroyed one of his pets, Soundwave would personally hunt them down and slaughter them. I'm afraid you and Luana are in the top of his 'people-to-kill' list, now."

"_Let him come!_" Luana roared. "_He will learn what his to have a dragon as an enemy._"

"Let's hope it does not come to that." Ismira cautioned.

"_Seriously, little one, aren't you exhilarated for having a Metal Giant as a sworn enemy? It is the quality of our foes which testifies our courage and strenght._"

"Don't underestimate Soundwave." Arcee advised. "He's second only to Megatron in battle and one of the most feared Decepticons. Rumors circle that he was the very first to serve Megatron."

* * *

><p>"YOU WORTHLESS PILE OF SLAG!" Megatron snarled, inching closer to Swindle's face. The battle-damaged Combaticon's energon was running cold with the raging, scared face of his leader before him. "I gave you a mission to go into a human village and collect some random insects! Instead you waste time taking their money and luring the Autobots and their fleshy allies to our activities!"<p>

"I-I can't help it, my Lord." Swindle trembled. "It was their money that was calling out to me! It's a habit."

If Swindle was looking for a combination of words to aggravate Megatron even more, he had nail it. The warlord grabbed Swindle with a roar and threw him into a thick stone wall, cracking the surface.

"ENOUGH WITH YOUR WHINING! You are confined to base until I decide on your punishment! Now get out of my sight, before I melt you down for scrap tutonium!"

"Uh...is 'tutonium' even a thing or are you joking?" Swindle's trailed off question was cut by Megatron murderous glare, and he left.

Sighing to relieve some of his pent up rage, Megatron found himself in need to crush something. He settled for blasting a blue-crystal statue of an elven woman holding a newly-hatched dragon. The beautiful sculpture was reduced to atoms and a few solid debris.

Megatron entered the communications office, where Soundwave was constantly working. Right now, he was reading a tiny human record - called a 'book' - looking at every page and then gently turning. His tentacles were connected to the mainframe, uploading all the new information he quickly scanned.

It was frustrating that these insects possessed such primitive technology to keep their data. But Soundwave managed to diligently build a database of this world. The Decepticons were still learning about this planet and needed every bit of knowledge they could get. Particularly any weaknesses on the Dragon Riders.

"Soundwave, open a private channel for Shockwave's lab."

The spymaster left his work and typed on the computer to call for the scientist on his secret lab. Shockwave's work station had been subtly installed far away from Doru Araeba - now dubbed 'New Kaon', as it began taking shape -, into the continent of Alagësia. Since the Decepticons would be delivering the captured humans into the lab, it was wise not to be located on the base, lest the Autobots tracked their activities.

"_Lord Megatron._" Shockwave bowed on the screen.

"Shockwave, the location of your laboratory may be compromised. The Autobots shot down Laserbeak and seized its remains. If its memory banks are still intact, the enemy may discern your location."

"It is paramount that you prepare to evacuate all your work, at any moment's notice. Understood?"

"_Clearly, my liege._" they spent the next cycles discussion how it would be done. After the comm ended, Megatron retreated himself.

Soundwave had remained impassive during the conversation. But when Megatron mentioned Laserbeak, he almost flinched. _Almost_. Laserbeak was the last cassette drone he had. And now it was _gone_.

A feeling he seldom felt came crashing. Anger. And desire for revenge.

His vizor flashed an image of Ismira Katrinasdaughter, the Dragon Rider who had fought and destroyed Laserbeak. For some time, Soundwave blamed her and that accursed white dragon of hers. But then he remembered something…

It had been something else, that primitive projectile, that unbalanced Laserbeak and allowed the dragon and Rider to kill it. It had all be orchestrated by Roran Garrowson, father of Ismira. The image of the bearded muscular man replaced her; a blurry, less focused image but distinguishable enough.

It was him who killed Laserbeak.

"_You will pay for this! I vow to you, Roran Stronghammer, you will pay dearly!_"

* * *

><p>Next chapter,<strong> Angela<strong> will be the main character and we'll see **Arya** again.


	8. Tale of Angela

We see **Arya** again but her relationship with **Eragon **is just a close friendship with some mixed feelings in between. If its ever to become a romance, it will be many years later.

**Chromia** in here is violet rather than blue, to distinguish her from Arcee. Just imagine her a bit similar to **Arcee (Prime)** but violet with blue highlights and a bit bulkier.

To fit the timeline of events with that of **Christopher Paolini**, I'm using Saphira's hatching as the markpoint. As in **977 BS** is '977 years Before Saphira'.

Somewhat needless to say, _**italics**_ are flashbacks.

* * *

><p><strong>METAL GIANTS<strong>

**Tale of Angela**

In the _Ark_, Optimus and Eragon watched as Ratchet plugged several cables into Laserbeak's ruined form. The cables were plugged to Teletran-1 by the other end.

"It seems the memory banks are indeed somewhat intact. With any luck, I might just be able to extract some intel on the Decepticons. Hopefully the location of their base." Ratchet mused.

"Or the reason they are abducting so many people." Eragon hoped.

Streams of Cybertronian runes appeared in the mainframe, flowing like a torrent of rain. Ratchet typed incoherently with a growing frustration on his face.

"Scrap it! Almost all the data is corrupted. And that which isn't, is heavily encrypted."

"Then allow me, old friend." Optimus stepped towards the computer and Ratchet stepped aside. "Alpha Trion taught me a great deal during my cycles as a data clerk."

Optimus typed, his expression completely monotonous unlike Ratchet's. The medic and the Rider observed, silent and patient as the Prime worked. An hour passed, two hours, until he came to a stop.

"I believe I may have found the answer to your question, Eragon. Laserbeak's memory tells of a place where all the abducted 'test subjects' were to be delivered to."

"Test subjects?" Eragon didn't like that label given to the kidnapped men and women.

"I fear what the Decepticons have in store for those people." Ratchet commented sympathetically.

The computer displayed a map of Alagaësia. Optimus approached his finger to a palm southeast from the city Dras-Leona, where four sharp peaks elevated like stakes.

"This is where the captured humans have been taken."

"Helgrind, the gates of death!" Eragon spat the name like a curse. "Of all the dark burrows in Alagaësia, that has to be the most vile they could send those unfortunate souls."

"Eragon, please explain to us what this Helgrind is." Optimus requested.

The Rider spent the next half an hour describing Helgrind and the creatures that once had made it their home. Ratchet nearly emptied his tanks in nausea when Eragon came to the part of the now-defunct religion - the Tosk Cult - that worshipped the mountains and how they did so.

"In reality those monks worshiped the Ra'zac and the Lethrblaka, seeing them as implacable butchering Gods. But no more, for my cousin and I have eradicated them and all the followers of that religion were persecuted and arrested." Eragon finished the narration. He had done everything in his power to erase the existence of those perfidious creatures and their legacy on this land.

"_The eggs in Dras-Leona weren't the only ones I took from the Lethrblaka. I have others, hidden elsewhere. Soon they shall hatch, and soon the Ra'zac shall once more roam the earth..._" the words of Galbatorix echoed in his mind like the grim reminder they were. For years he and Saphira searched for those hidden eggs with no result. A part of him hoped Galbatorix had been lying, but the logical part told him such thing was most unlikely.

"Humans actually worshiped their very natural predators?" the medic was disgusted and baffled. "What is wrong with these _humans_?"

"That aside, Helgrind has an extensive labyrinth of tunnels, large enough to accommodate Cybertronians. Since the Tosk Cult was rendered defunct, Helgrind has been considered a haunted place by the people of Dras-Leona. Therefore nobody approaches those accursed mountains anymore."

"Then Decepticons have found a perfect hide-out, especially one we wouldn't think of searching, given how close they are to a major city. They abducted victims from far away places but spared Dras-Leona to throw off suspicion." Optimus deduced, inspecting the map again. "Eragon, are you familiar with the layout of these tunnels?"

"Aye, after Galbatorix fell, Saphira and I examined and probed that place thoroughly. I took the liberty of drawing a map. There are a handful of vast chambers where the Decepticons could hide or perform their operations." Eragon paused. "However, even if our theory turns out to be true, my priority is to rescue the people."

"I understand your concern, Eragon, and I respect your decision. But I must warn you; if what I muse is true, then those people have already perished...in gruesome ways." Optimus added with a bit of reluctance.

"What do you mean?"

Optimus looked down before replying:

"My scouts investigated the places where the two Decepticons ships crash-landed millennia ago. Both the continents Laurunia and Alalëa are devoid of sentient life, human or elf."

The Eldunarí knew the names and locations of the original homelands of humans and elves, and Eragon entrusted that knowledge to the Autobots. It startled and disturbed him when he learnt those were the places where the Decepticons made their contact with the world.

"In Alalëa, there were only wrecks of the ship _Nemesis_ and the corpses of its long rusted crew." Ratchet resumed with a shake of his head.

"Unfortunately when we scouted the wreckage of _Harbinger_ on Laurunia, we discovered something far more troubling. The ship in question was more intact and it seemed it had been used as a base of operations, for quite some time. But by the time we arrived there, whoever was using it had already evacuated themselves and all their supplies."

"You have an idea who is it, don't you?" Eragon was sharp.

"I do. The _Harbinger_ was lead by the Decepticon head of warfare science, Shockwave."

Eragon didn't have to ask anything else. He had heard that name on occasion from several Autobots and when he asked, he almost wished he didn't. Shockwave was described as a butcher, an unnatural monster capable of the most heinous horrors. Some said he was even worse than Megatron, as he displayed a cold, collected cruelty.

But Eragon had learnt from Oromis that such reports were often exaggerated. So he had asked the 'bot whom he knew enough not to distort reality: Optimus. Though the Prime's explanation wasn't much comforting. He had said:

"_Shockwave is...a mech with very void morals, whose spark has a very limited view on life. His only interest is to expand the barriers of science at any cost. With no regard of how many have to suffer for that goal._"

"You believe this Shockwave might be alive and has rejoined the Decepticons."

"Optimus," Ratchet voiced. "I find that a bit unlikely. Shockwave was never adept at anything organic."

"Let us not forget that the Harbinger was carrying another top-ranking scientist." Optimus said ominously and Ratchet's metallic eyebrows rose.

"You don't mean..._him_."

"Whom?" Eragon asked, now confused.

"Scalpel. A terror just as menacing as Shockwave. Though he is not as infamous as the head scientist since his branch of expertize is organics. Yet he's just as much of a moraless fanatic with nonexistent ethics." Ratchet explained. "To put it bluntly, Scalpel is equal parts medic, engineer, and butcher. He excels at taking things apart, whether they be Autobot, organic, or even his fellow Decepticons. This becomes troublesome as his enthusiasm for dissecting things is far greater than his ability to reassemble them once he's done."

"If Shockwave and Scalpel - or even just one of them - are indeed serving the Decepticon cause once again, then are undoubtedly planning to cannibalize their victims as fodder for their warfare research." Optimus spoke evenly but with an edge of fury.

Eragon though had a much bigger trouble keeping his rage in control. Through their bond he could feel Saphira's own anger boiling. She had been at the Mennla Traevam but always hearing what her partner heard. Using innocent people, taken from their friends and loved ones to be used as sacrifices to expand the Decepticons' means of destruction...Untolerable!

"We are with you, Optimus. This cannot go unpunished."

"You say that of everything the Decepticons do." an all-too familiar voice said, entering the meeting uninvited. "Then again, they are Decepticons, so I must agree with you when you say they are asking for a slap on the wrist. A slap on the wrist? Bah! Why do people think that's even a slight punishment?"

"Angela, how long have you been eavesdropping?" Eragon asked.

"That is for me to know and you to find out. But I don't want you to find out." she approached, walking in the hallways meant for the protoforms and organics. "Now then, you're planning an attack on Helgrind and I'd like to join you."

"Why is that?" Eragon asked. The two Cybertronians stood on the sidelines, watching the conversation.

"That's for me to know, too. But if you must know its like when we infiltrated Dras-Leona. I have a grudge with the 'Cons and I'd like to prickle them a little."

The Rider remembered Angela confessing she had had experience with the Decepticons, when she joined him in his office. He was anxious to learn more, though he knew it would be a futile endeavour. Angela, the herbalist is a creature of many mysteries and very few answers.

"Very well, your help is most welcomed." Eragon nodded.

"Wise choice." Angela then added as an afterthought. "Thinking better, I would have gone even if you forbade, so that was your only choice."

And she vacated the room without another word.

"Who is she?" Ratchet questioned.

"I have witnessed her fighting in the Battle for Farthen Dûr." Optimus said. "It was reported her blade could slice through the enemy's armor. Something even the Riders' swords cannot match."

"Angela is full of surprises like that." Eragon stated. "Now before we decide on our course of action, Saphira and I must go to Illirea immediately. Queen Nasuada wishes us to be there when she addresses the people.

"Now that everyone in Palancar Valley knows about you, she decided it is best to comfort the people that you're our allies, before the rumors start to spread. She says the presence of the returned Kingkiller hero would smooth things." he sighed at the last part.

"I'll prepare the groundbridge. The sooner you return, the sooner we can catch the Decepticons red-handed." Ratchet headed for the bridge nexus.

"Eragon, I question the wisdom of presenting Metal Giants before your people. It would start the panic your Queen wants to avoid." Optimus opined.

"Which is why no Metal Giant will be there in the public declaration." Eragon said. "I admit this plan is rough around the edges, but I believe it is the only way to avoid mass hysteria."

* * *

><p>In the corridors of the <em>Ark<em>, Angela paced peacefully, but her mind was rocky with old memories surfacing. She had overheard all the conversation, especially the part concerning a certain cyclops Decepticon.

"_Shockwave...I know you still live_." she hissed mentally. The herbalist remembered that monster all too well…

_750 years ago (727 BS), on Laurunia…_

"_Angela! You dare betray me? The very one who created you, trained you. Raised you! The one who made you the most powerful human in existence!" there were a few things that made the cool scientist lose his temper. Angela had just did one of them._

"_You did nothing for me but turning me into a monster! I am not your weapon! I'M MY OWN PERSON!" Angela snapped._

"_It is illogical for the creation to turn against the creator!" and Shockwave aimed his cannon at her, ready to vaporize her._

* * *

><p>The herald declared loudly to the crowd of Ilirea, from the balcony of the palace:<p>

"Ladies, gentlemen, good people of Ilirea! I give thee Her Majesty the Queen... Queen Nasuada!" he stepped aside to allow the sovereign to present herself to the expectant crowd in the courtyard. Moderate cheers and applause erupted. When it died out, Nasuada declared loudly:

"My people, I have an announcement to make. First, I'd like two old heros to join us today. Whom which without their efforts, none of the freedom and prosperity we share today would exist. I give you Eragon Kingkiller and Saphira Brightscales!"

Eragon stepped into the balcony. The applause that followed started out as surprised, and a few gasps were obvious for the attentive listeners. Over the last few years, Eragon had been elevated into a legend by the Humans, which was only boosted by his disappearing into the unknown eastlands.

Saphira made herself visible on the roof of the palace. The balcony was large enough to hold her, had she been 23 years younger. But the roof was strong and spacious enough to carry her size and weight, due in part to the many spells placed on the infrastructure. Her roar startled many.

"Our heroes have returned to us at a time when we must unite again, in order to triumph over the darkness." that statement created a buzz of gossip in the crowd. They knew this had to mean bad news were inbound. "As of recently, a new race has arrived on Alagaësia. One which finds itself split in the same conflict our people was divided for a hundred years."

Nasuada paused and gave a quick look to Eragon. Now came the whole truth.

"You may have heard the rumors that the dwarf capital Tronjheim was attacked by unworldly Metal Giants. And that more recently, Palancar Valley suffered the same fate. Those rumors are, tragically, true."

The gossip this time was louder and a few shrieks were heard. Nasuada spoke again to appease them before panic took roots.

"But fear not, for there is hope. The Dragon Riders, in all their wisdom, have allied themselves with the Metal Giants freedom fighters Autobots, who fight against tyranny just as the Varden did. With their help, the Riders saved Tronjheim and Palancar Valley against the tyrannical Decepticons."

The people were drinking every word now, which was exactly what Nasuada wanted, Eragon noticed. To make them held onto the hope there were Metal Giants on their side, working with the Riders they look up to so much.

* * *

><p>Hours later, Eragon had just finished talking with several nobles and some other people. In particular was Jeod Longshanks, who had come asking him about so much of what happened and what he had learnt from these Metal Giants.<p>

When he finally had time to rest, Eragon retreated to a guest chambers in the palace which had been given to him. There was a knock on the door and he interrupted his reading to let them in, even though he already knew who it was.

A cascadeof raven-black hair and the smell of crushed pine needles. The angular, perfect face with slanted green eyes. The light but elegant golden crown of the Elves made her look even more attractive.

She still looked as beautiful as ever.

"Atra esterní ono thelduin"

"Atra du evarínya ono varda."

"Un atra mor'ranr lífa unin hjarta onr. It's good to see you again, Arya." he smiled.

"The feeling is mutual." she replied, albeit not as delighted as him. In fact Arya appeared to be disturbed and Eragon had a small idea of what it was about.

"I came to Ilirea as soon as Vanir informed me you would come publicly this time. And now that Fírnen and Saphira are playing like two kittens, we can talk privately." she immediately casted a spell to shield them from eavesdroppers.

"Eragon, I sincerely hope you have not make this alliance with the Autobots merely driven by your insatiable curiosity."

"I feel offended by your words, Arya." he shook his head. "Granted my insatiable curiosity had some weight but I first ensured the Autobots were trustworthy. Besides, they were lost in a strange land and in need of help.

"Accuse of inexperience if you must, Arya Dröttning. That would be fair considering your life experience far surpasses mine. But do not dare accuse me of taking my responsibility lightly. I am the leader of the Shur'tugal and as such I put that obligation above all others." he spoke with a dragon's ferocity and an elf's patience which Arya obviously took notice. Seemingly embarrassed, Arya dropped her head and apologized:

"I humbly beg for your forgiveness for my rash words, Shur'tugal Valdr, both as Dröttning and fellow Shur'tugal." she addressed him with the title of head Rider - Shur'tugal Valdr.

"You are forgiven." to himself he was mildly surprised how he had addressed Arya. It had been years since he hadn't seen her. It occurred to him he didn't feel as ecstatic to see her as he expected. Of course he was pleased to see...an old friend! That's just what Arya was. An old friend.

Had he moved beyond her, as she herself had predicted? Or would he again feel infatuated by her, once he got reacquainted with her more?

He pushed those thoughts aside. Now it was not the time to dwell in that. He took note that she appeared still perturbed by something.

"What is it bothering you, Arya? My fellow Riders have fought beside the Autobots and forged bonds of comradeship. They are trusted allies."

"I am sure they are." she sighed and paused before continuing. "Eragon, before I answer your question, I must ask for your vow of silence on this matter. This is a secret of the elven race, one which we have kept for such a long time, that those who survived it are nothing more than dust in the earth now. Although it doesn't necessarily threatens our safety, we insist on keeping it closed."

"I vow I'll keep it to the day of my death." he spoke in the Ancient Language, thus closing the oath.

"Have you ever wondered why we Elves left our homeland, Alalëa, thousands of years ago?"

"Occasionally, yes. But I never gave it much thought."

"Long ago we shared a continent of plains and canyons with the Urgals, our homeland of Alalëa. It was an age long lost, when we elves had round ears and mortal lives and the Urgals were a race of sailors, explorers and boundless adventurers.

"We lived at peace with our neighbours and kept mostly to ourselves. There were parts of Alalëa that neither race wished to explore, for the Urgals dreamed of the sea and we lived for the art. Until one day, a family or our own opted to explore a northeast part of our homeland where neither Urgals or Elves dwelled. We do not know what happened exactly, for our records of that time are vague. But we know that family discovered the destroyed remains of a very ancient metal cove."

Eragon's eyes widened at the revelation. "Of course, how could I have been so narrow-minded!? The Autobots told me that the flying vessel _Nemesis_ fell on Alalëa. So you…"

"We have met these creatures before." Arya nodded sadly. "You may have heard that my people left Alalëa as a result of a terrible mistake. That mistake was prodding something that was far beyond our control or understanding. That family awakened the Decepticon crew of the vessel and the Metal Giants spread destruction and sorrow upon Alalëa like a plague.

"We were fortunate, for we managed to escape with our civilization more or less intact, albeit diminished. Fate was much more unkind to the Urgals. Their race was nearly wiped out and their culture destroyed. The only survivors were a sort of outcasts among their society, who had little interest in exploration and prefered the bloodlust of war. With that limited experience in sailing, they followed us to Alagaësia. And the rest you already know."

Eragon regarded what he had just learnt before responding with a dry amusement:

"It is ironic, wouldn't you say? The Decepticons put events in motion that would give birth to the Dragon Riders. Despite their malevolent ways, it seems they can only do good when they don't intend it."

Minutes passed as each one contemplated their own thoughts. Eragon gazed out of the window, drinking the sun rays that pierced through it.

"I missed you." he admitted without thinking. If Arya caught that, she didn't show, opting to reply simply:

"And I you." she then asked. "How have you been?"

He accounted his last years of learning more from the dragons and now even more with the Autobot Perceptor. He didn't spare details on how he taught his pupils, taking joy in his new role of teacher rather than warrior. That brought a small smile to Arya's lips.

After he told her more about the Autobots themselves, a thought, a possibility sparked in his mind. He looked at Arya and whispered:

"Have you learnt of people disappearing throughout the Broddring Kingdom?" she nodded and he continued. "We and the Autobots have discerned this is the work of the Decepticons. We believe we have discovered where those people have been taken. Optimus Prime, Saphira and I are planning an assault on that place. Would you and Fírnen like to join us?"

"An assault where?"

"Helgring. We have reasons to believe a Decepticon named Shockwave is using the people as experiments. I will not stand idle on this. But I can't take any of my Riders, for they must keep patrolling the land presently. So I ask this of you; will you come with us?"

"I would never stand idle on this. But you must know by now that these Cybertronians cannot be afflicted by magic."

"Yes, they can. We just have to strike them in the right places." Eragon smirked. "In a few hours we depart to Du Fläo abr Daburthr where we will plan and I will teach you the spells we've orchestrated to fight the Decepticons."

* * *

><p>"The successful specimens go first." Shockwave instructed the Vehicon who carried the tubes through the groundbridge.<p>

He was evacuating his extensive lab out of Helgrind before the Autobots came. Though there was no guarantee his location had been compromised, it was logical to do so.

As he gazed upon the dead and half-dead humans who served as samples for his heinous experiment, he recalled the first human test subject he had worked on, hundreds of stellar cycles ago. The one he had used to pioneer this experiment.

_822 years ago (799 BS)..._

_In Laurunia, the homeland of the Humans, there were no more Humans. Shockwave's nefarious creations, the Ra'zac and the Lethrblaka, finished after 30 stellar cycles of work, had devoured humans by the tens of thousands. The insect species had been driven on the verge of extinction._

"_Creator." a Lethrblaka approached Shockwave, who walked through the abandoned city where the stench of rotting human meat still floated. "The humans have taken refuge on the coastal hives. They are preparing to leave by sea."_

"_Hunt them down. If they leave, let them. They are of no consequence anymore."_

_The Ra'zac Project had been a success! The human insects had been eradicated and would no longer interfere with his experiments._

_A shrieking sound alerted him. The Ra'zac and Lethrblaka making their nests in the ghost city went into a frenzy. It was the cry of a human baby! Oh, how they loved the taste of young flesh, much softer than the adults!_

_Shockwave's gaze followed them as a Ra'zac forced the entrance of a an abandoned orphanage. There was a little baby girl in the cradle. The Ra'zac prepared to sink its sharp beak into the girl's neck when…_

"_Stop!" Shockwave ordered and the Ra'zac did so. The Decepticon forced his head and arm into the building by destroying the doorway. He carefully picked up the infant who kept shrieking. "This one is mine."_

_Anyone who does not know Shockwave would assume the Decepticon had taken mean to his heart/spark and saved an innocent child form a cruel fate. But it was none of it._

_With humans about to become extinct, it would be wise to keep some specimens around for later study and experimentation. And that was why he saved the baby; not because he had felt mercyful._

"_Now go, continue on your hunt." he ordered to his fetid creations and they left, going to pursue the humans taking refuge on the seashore. _

"_Creator!" they all bowed and left, Ra'zac mounting their flying parents._

_Shockwave transformed with the baby on his carrier compartment. He sprayed her with a sleeping gas and she fell silent. He drove to his workshop in the_ Harbinger_. _

_In there, he built a makeshift nutricion tube and put the child in there. It would supply all the nutrition necessary for the child to grow until the age of five. And then Shockwave would start his new project on her._

"_What should I call this new project?" he thought to himself. His optic noticed the word written on the cradle, the name of the baby: Angela._

"_Angela." he whispered and turned to the baby in the tube. "That shall be your name. Project: Angela."_

* * *

><p>"It makes me feel nauseous." Arya confessed after they crossed the groundbridge portal.<p>

"You'll grow accustomed after the sixth time." Eragon smiled. The two Riders and their dragons had crossed with Angela, Optimus, Mirage, Bumblebee and Ironhide and Chromia, a violet two-wheeler who bore a slender resemblance to Arcee. It was a dark night and the moon barely shone against the bare Helgrind.

"Looks like Darkmount." Ironhide looked at the four peaks with distaste.

"Darkmount?" Arya asked.

"The citadel of the Decepticon capital Kaon, back on Cybertron. A big, black and ugly tower where Buckethead used to bark his order from."

"Mirage, scout ahead." Optimus ordered and the Spy Changer made himself invisible and entered the cave. After Galbatorix's defeat, Eragon dismantled all the spells and wards protecting Helgrind. So the cave entrance at the base was revealed and unguarded.

A few minutes later, he communicated:

"_Place is clean of 'Cons_."

"Remain quiet." Optimus instructed and they all moved silently. Arya found it somewhat impressive that such giant beings could make themselves so subtle, carefully avoiding stepping too hardly on the rocky ground.

Thanks to their superior sight, Autobots, Dragons and Riders didn't need to enlighten their path. The better, to avoid detection. The cave brought grim memories to Eragon. Of when they infiltrated it to see Katrina free. The horror it must have been for her to be trapped here. For all the slaves and victims they and their malevolent steeds devoured in their nest of death.

The air now wasn't fetid like that time, the mountain hadn't been home to any dark creatures for years. But the memories remained…

"_Eragon._" Saphira called him but he reassured her he was alright.

"_They're just memories. They can't harm me now._"

"_They can if they take your sight off the present._" she argued, turning her head to him just slightly.

They continued until a bifurcation met them. Eragon checked the map he had drawn many years ago:

"The path to the left leads to a large chamber and continues until it rises up the mountain. The path to the right will split into two more. The left goes to another chamber and a dead end. The right one ends in a stream connected to the Lake Leona."

"Let us separate, but proceed with caution." Optimus said.

"How else were you planning to proceed?" Angela looked sharply at the Prime, addressing him in the same way she did the elf Wyrden years ago. "With blaring trumpets and shouting heralds? Hmph! I'm turning to the left."

Everyone, Autobot, Rider and Dragon stared at the departing herbalist, stunned. Eragon gave Optimus an apologetic shrug. They split up, Angela, Arya, Fírnen, Ironhide and Chromia to the left. The others went through the right. Eragon gave Arya a copy of the map.

* * *

><p>Angela walked on the vanguard between Ironhide and Chromia. Fírnen strolled behind with Arya on his back. The sound of metallic footsteps, much louder than the Autobots', alerted them. A Vehicon had just came around a corner and stopped dead on its tracks when he saw them.<p>

Before Fírnen could attack or Arya cast a killing spell, Chromia moved like an arrow and chopped the drone's head of, quietly. The elf had to marvel (and fear) the femme Autobot's killing precision and the perfection of it.

"That was a perfect moment of deadly accuracy." she commented.

"Thanks, though I'm not one to take pride in my kill-count." Chromia smiled slightly.

"The feeling is mutual." Arya paused. "You move as hastily as an arrow and as smoothly as a leaf in the wind. For one of your size, in an environment like this, it leads me to believe you've trained in this place for long."

"All I can say is, I had a great mentor. He's who made me who I am."

Angela was almost ready to tell them to quiet down and leave the chat of mentors for later. But then she had a remembrance of her own original mentor. The first she had long before Tenga or the others.

* * *

><p><em>808 years ago (785 BS)…<em>

"_Try harder." Shockwave ordered harshly. Fifteen years since Project: Angela started. Fifteen years old she was._

"_But it hurts!" she whined._

"_Then try even harder." he ordered callously. "This is an experiment and I require results. If this causes pain in your internal organs, that means the procedure is working."_

_Angela was standing in a raised platform, trying to appeal to her life-force, as Shockwave commanded her. A blinding light irradiated her skin for a less than a klik and when it died out, there was young Angela, still in human size, with a Cybertronian armor covering every inch of her body!_

_Naturally she got scared and fell on her back. The armor is green and brown, the same one she would wear at all times, in the centuries to come. The helmet slightly resembles Megatron's. The only thing that proved she was a human and not a protoform was the opening where her human eyes were still visible._

"_Wha...what happened to me?!"_

"_You have become what you were meant to be. Since I found you, I upgraded your primitive organic body with implants while you were growing. You are now a Technorganic, the perfect meld of human and Cybertronian and the greatest advancement I have made so far." he spoke with no boastfulness, just plain fact stating._

"_In time, you will prowess into the weapon I conceived you to be, the first spawn of a whole army of Decepticon super-soldiers. But for now, you will learn to summon only parts of your armor._

"_Now wish it away, to call it off. And then summon it again."_

_Angela did so, and this time, the armor disappeared in another instant burst of light. But it still hurt greatly. As if the metal was entering her body, piercing her flesh. Then she summoned it again, reliving the same pain. All while Shockwave watched uncaringly._

* * *

><p><em>803 years ago (780 BS)…<em>

_Angela, now twenty-years-old, was walking beside her 'father' in a barren plain. It used to be the place of several prosperous agricultural villages. Until the Ra'zac and Lethrblaka came and devoured everyone. Everywhere she saw dried bones, empty even of marrow. It made her stomach twist._

_Angela had most of her armor on, save for the helmet, hand and feet pieces. That is how she stays most of the time, preferring to have some armor available, since the transformation always hurts._

_She halted when she spotted a small patch of colorful tulips, all coiled together against the aridez of the earth. Like an oasis desperately trying to survive the desert. Angela approached them, eager to touch something so lively and verdant._

_But Shockwave blasted it with his cannon, turning the flowers into a black crater. Angela turned to him, shocked and dismayed:_

"_Why?"_

"_Because beauty is illogical."_

_When he turned his back, Angela shot him a hateful look. It wasn't the first time she did so._

* * *

><p><em>793 years ago (770 BS)…<em>

_In her thirties, Angela had become an experienced fighter. Turns out her armor had its own sword. She had fought several Ra'zac in death matches, ordered by Shockwave._

"_You have progressed greatly. Now starts your first lone test on the field. My Lethrblaka have reported there's a small settlement of humans living at the top of an isolated mountain. I want you to go there and terminate them."_

_Hearing his command caused Angela's eyes to widen in shock, to which Shockwave noticed._

"_That is an order." he said coldly._

"_Why send me? This is a task for the Ra'zac." she protested._

"_Because this is a test solely for you. Now go!"_

"_But how will I get there?"_

"_You'll ride a Lethrblaka to the base of the mountain and then proceed uphill. Leave no life-form alive."_

_The prospect of ridding of those disgusting, evil creatures made her just as sick as the order of killing. But she relented; there was no choice. Angela turned to the Lethrblaka and it glared at her._

_It was hard to tell which one despised the other the more. The Ra'zac and Lethrblaka didn't like Angela, because she was a meal they could never have and she killed several of their pupae, even though it was by the Creator's order._

_Later that night, the Lethrblaka dropped her off at the base of the mountain and she climbed up. The settlement was just a small agglomerate of houses. She sighed wearily, knowing in a matter of seconds, it would all go down to hell._

_In that night, Angela made her first kill. The sight of the lifeless people she slaughtered would forever remain with her._

* * *

><p>When the team consisting of Optimus, Eragon, Saphira, Mirage and Bumblebee reached the other bifurcation on their chosen path, they opted to search the path that lead to the stream. There was nothing there, so they turned back to the other option.<p>

Bumblebee halted, looking at a patch of revolted dirt. He analyzed it and showed a bit to Optimus.

"What is that?" Eragon asked. Saphira stretched her neck to smell the dirt. She detected no fragrance she could discern, though there was something unnatural there.

"There was used energon spilled here not long ago." Optimus wisphered. "There is no remainder of doubt the Decepticons are here."

They moved on until the echoing sound of metal hitting metal caught them. The chamber was near and and lightened. Taking cover, Eragon peaked.

There were drones, Vehicons, hurriedly picking up Kull-sized tubes made of some glass-like transparent material. Inside the tubes was a yellow liquid, in which a human body floated. The abducted people!

"_So this really is where they were taken._" Eragon growled mentally, Saphira mimicking him. He reached out to the humans with his mind and, to his surprise, they were alive. Though suspended in a sort of coma. "They live."

"_But those Decepticons soon will not._" the dragon snarled. The team exposed themselves, prepared for battle.

"Autobots!" a Vehicon shouted.

"Stand down!" Optimus' order fell on deaf audio receptors and the drones fired immediately. Yet the slaughter was one-sided and short, especially with a Prime, a Spy Changer, a Dragon, its Rider and a young but experienced warrior scout on their team. No Vehicon was left intact, Saphira had been particularly vengeful.

"Mission accomplished...I guess." Mirage proclaimed and walked towards one of the tubes. "Now what to do with these?"

"We take them to Du Fläo abr Daburthr to find a way to undo this." Eragon said.

Optimus was about to call for a groundbridge when another one opened. To their aggravation, Decepticon soldiers came out, Starscream, Barricade **(WFC)** and Breakdown **(Prime)**. And another one arrived, bigger than any other Decepticon Eragon had ever seen, aside from the titan Bruticus.

This one possessed an air of ancient cruelty. A lust for destruction of a Shade and thirst for power of Galbatorix. His silver-gray armor carried several war scars, especially in the face. The teeth sharp as a dragon's and optics red as Durza's fire made Eragon want to turn away from such vast and evil presence.

The Autobots were stunned to see this new Decepticon. Even Optimus who muttered:

"Megatron."

"This is Megatron?" Eragon couldn't help but shout. Now he understood why the Decepticons were such a malevolent force. Megatron was far more intimidating than the narrations from the Autobots. Saphira herself felt a tiny hesitance to engage the towering Decepticon just like that.

"Decepticons, eviscerate them!"

A new fight, a much more vicious and balanced one, sparked. Breakdown engaged Mirage while Barricade fought Bumblebee.

"It's hammer time!" Breakdown shifted his hand into a massive mace, gleeful for battling. He charged at the Spy Changer who, at the last minute, phased through the cave wall. Breakdown hit the wall with the face and Mirage reappeared behind him.

"That would like have really hurt."

Meanwhile, Saphira and Eragon engage Starscream, whom they knew had ordered the attack on Farthen Dûr and they were eager to exact revenge for that. Saphira snarled at the Seeker, who looked visibly scared.

"Leave me be, you organic abomination!"

"Fight us, you whining coward!" the Rider roared. Saphira charged at Starscream, knocking him into the rocky wall. Starscream recoiled and aimed his null-rays at her. But Eragon performed a quick spell that crippled the firing mechanism. The Seeker's reaction was to panic when he saw he couldn't fire.

"What the scrap!"

Saphira pounced at him, anxious to make him suffer further. Starscream squirmed at Saphira's fangs. The dragon tried to bite off his optics, one of the weak spots in the armored body. How much she craved to bite out this vermin's eyes!

"Get off me!" Starscream kicked Saphira in her belly, giving him enough room to squeeze out of her grasp and stand up again. He then attempted a bold move; using his sharp claws to slice off her Rider.

Big mistake. Saphira bit off Starscream's servo and threw him over herself and into the the opposite wall. In the process, Starscream's left hand was ripped off and crushed in the dragon's jaws.

Saphira looked at the cowering Seeker with doubled rage. This spineless invertebrate had dared to threaten her Rider! She would prolong his suffering greatly before burning him, ripping him, crushing him off existence!

"You will pay for this, you freak!" Starscream transformed and flew away through the tunnel.

Minutes before, Optimus were exchanging a series of sword slashes and occasional punches. Megatron was physically stronger, but Optimus held his own. Megatron slashed Optimus in the chest and aimed his fusion cannon at him, but Optimus kicked him back.

It was then Megatron noticed his lieutenant had cowardly fled.

"Starscream, you dare to abandon me!?"

Saphira breath out a tongue of fire at Megatron from the back. Any other 'Con would have cried out in pain but Megatron refused to do so. The onslaught made him stagger and Optimus shot him.

"You're finished, Megatron."

"Hardly, old friend!" the tyrant sneered, picking himself up. Behind him a groundbridge appeared and he announced. "Decepticons, retreat!"

They disengaged and dove into the vortex back to their base. Before stepping in, Megatron pushed a button of a remote control and the tubes containing the comatose humans burst, the prisoners began to wake up.

"Have a little taste of my newest drones. There are plenty more where those came from." smirking, Megatron retreated into the vortex.

Eragon would have dismounted Saphira and attended those men and women but caution prevented him. Those humans stood up, facing the Autobots with blank stares. Then the unexpected happened. They're bodies flashed a red light and they were covered in Cybertronian armor, all with Decepticon insignias on them!

The Technorganics moved onto the rescuers without mercy.

* * *

><p>On their own end, Arya, Fírnen, Chromia and Ironhide were dealing with the same problem. After climbing up their way to the top level, they encountered Shockwave who unleashed his own stash of Technorganics at them.<p>

"What are these fraggers?" Ironhide grunted, vaporizing three with his cannons.

The Technorganics may be small but they were fast and able to fly. They were also stronger than they looked and armed with magic.

"They're Technorganics!" Angela cried out, slicing off one's arm with Tinkledeath. "Because they're partly made of flesh, they can use magic."

Arya noticed that. She couldn't imagine how the wise one knew what these unfortunate people had become, though. These Technorganics' minds were like those of the Autobots, alien and incomprehensible. They used spells of very few words, as spellcasters with very limited vocabulary of the Ancient Language. But more frighteningly, none of the spells Eragon taught her were having effect.

"_They are warded!_" she realized. But how? As she had been told, Cybertronians were incapable of using magic, due to the lack of organic energy to infuse the words. Maybe they had used a human spellcaster? Or perhaps these slave creatures were conceived to be especially resilient?

"_Little one, simple attacks do not hurt them. We must use every ounce of strength in our fangs and limbs and every spark of fire in our bellies._" her partner-of-mind-and-heart said and she was inclined to agree. But her sword, Támerlein, was incapable of seriously damage their alien armor, unlike Tinkledeath.

Turning to the wise one for answers, she grimly discovered the herbalist was absent.

* * *

><p>Shockwave was preparing to escape when an all-too familiar voice halted him:<p>

"Hello, _Creator_." she spoke with pure despise.

"Of all my lost creations, you are the one I least expected to ever return to me."

_750 years ago (727 BS)…_

_She has had enough of him. Angela has had enough of her 'creator' and the fiends she had grown up with. She was going to leave, but not before making a statement. The original Technorganic walked into Shockwave's lab to see him tinkering, as usual. Hearing the footsteps, he turned to her._

"_What do you want? I have no assignment for you now."_

"_There is something you should know." she replied softly and Shockwave moved away from his work to face her fully._

"_What is that?"_

_Angela moved like a jumping flea__and threw her sword like a spear at his face. Shockwave cried out and staggered back, clenching his partially blinded optic._

"_Angela! You dare betray me? The very one who created you, trained you. Raised you! The one who made you the most powerful human in existence!" there were a few things that made the cool scientist lose his temper. Angela had just done one of them._

"_You did nothing for me but turning me into a monster! I am not your weapon! I'M MY OWN PERSON!" Angela snapped._

"_It is illogical for the creation to turn against the creator!" and Shockwave aimed his cannon at her, ready to vaporize her. But with his sight impaired, he missed and Angela ran outside no stopping._

_She was already a mile away from the lab when three Lethrblaka came flying behind her, snarling hungrily._

"_The Creator says we can eat you now!" one of the demonic pursuers hissed. "Peel the flesh off your metal shell!"_

_Angela wound up backed into an edge that ended in the ocean. There was no escape but then she remembered; the Lethrblaka dislike flying over the ocean. Seeing no other option, she leaped over the edge and into the water. Never again she was seen in Laurunia._

"Today I finish what I started." she brandished Tinkledeath and tried to jump at him. He rose his servo at her and proclaimed:

"Letta!" Angela halted in mid-attack, paralyzed. "Your plan to attack me without any precaution was most illogical. Did you actually believe you could catch surprised a second time, even though I frankly admit it was an unexpected algorithm to see you again."

Angela struggled to set herself free with no result. Shockwave put a finger on her back and her armor was deactivated against her will.

"You are of no use to me anymore. I have perfect the Project: Angela. As of now, my Technorganic drones are upgraded beyond your prototypal abilities. And with no minds of their own, the chance of rebellion has been reduced to zero."

He aimed her cannon at her.

"Time to terminate loose ends."

Fate was still on Angela's side, though, as Arya and her comrades came barging into the room. They bore signs of a fight they had survived just barely. Rider and Dragon were bloodied and bruised, Fírnen sported a nasty gush on the right flank. The Autobots were scratched, dented, even one of Ironhide's cannon was inoperational. Despite injuries and exhaustion, their will was unbroken.

"Shockwave!Kiss the scrapheap 'hello'!"

"Eítha!" the Autobots and Shur'tugal were pushed away which allowed him time to escape through the Decepticon groundbridge. But not before triggering the self-destruct mechanism of the entire lab. All around them, the little equipment left began to overload and explode.

"_Ark_, a groundbridge now would be nice!" Chromia got on her comm and they made their exit just in time, Angela glaring daggers at the place where Shockwave had escaped from.

Outside, Helgrind crumbled as its insides exploded, leaving only two peaks still standing.

* * *

><p>"Technorganics?" Nasuada echoed the foreign word.<p>

"According to Angela, that is what they are called." Eragon spoke wearily. The two teams had escaped annihilation that destroyed half of Helgrind. He was reporting to Nasuada through the mirror in his office. "According to Angela, they are a meld of human and Cybertronian put together by the Decepticon scientist Shockwave. Hence they have the abilities of both. Their armor is resilient and they can utilize magic. And with their minds completely alien its practically impossible to take control of them."

"Is there no way to release our people from that imprisonment?"

"I fear not." he sighed solemnly. "They were all destroyed in the explosion and during the battle Arya and I tried to appeal to their minds, but it was in vain. If we could contain one of them, study them, maybe a cure could be developed in time."

"The savage attack on Farthen Dûr was already terrible, but abducting innocent civilians to fuel their twisted goals is barbaric!" Nasuada spat, as she was in a private session with a friend, the Queen could raise her voice as she wished so. "Eragon, these creatures must be punished for these atrocious crimes!"

"And they will pay, if Saphira and I have anything to say and do about it." he vowed to himself than to her. Once calm settled again, the report turned more business-like:

"Were you able to collect any weakness on these slave-of-mind soldiers? Possibly a way to neutralize them?"

"From what I observed, their powers resides more on their speed than their strenght. Though they are probably as strong as elves, one can't take on an Autobot alone. These Technorganics prefer to attack in barely organized swarms, probably due to their simple minds.

"Another thing was, their limited vocabulary allowed them to make only crucible spells that require more energy than more elaborate phrases. Under normal circumstance we would only have to endure until they exhaust themselves. But unfortunately, their Cybertronian half gives them a much greater life force. So that option is excluded. The best way, I believe, is to take advantage of their incoherent tactics."

Nasuada took a deep breath before asking: "Anything else?"

"Aye. According to what Arya told me, Shockwave was able to perform magic."

"How?" Nasuada recalled Eragon telling her Cybertronian couldn't use magic, back when he first revealed their existence to her . "Did he make himself a Technorganic?"

"I don't know, but from what we understand, Shockwave had spent a long time on this world. He has probably studied magic and learnt how to control it. Though like his creations, his knowledge of the Ancient Language is limited."

"And I don't suppose you know where they have retreated to."

"No idea, Nasuada." Eragon paused before delivering more bad news. "You remember what I told you about the founder and original leader of the Decepticons?"

"I recollect he perished in his arrival to our world. His name was... Megatorn?"

"Megatron. Turns out he did not perished at all."

"How is he?"

Eragon made the longest pause in that conversation before replying grimly:

"He was...gigantic, monstrous. A living nightmare. As driven as Galbatorix and as malevolent as Durza. Though he appears to be sane, unlike the former."

"Gods!" the High Queen exhaled, dropping her face on her hand. "For how long do we have to fight an all-powerful, undying dictator? Is Alagaësia to be trapped in this cycle forever?"

"Not quite, Nasuada. This isn't the same as Galbatorix. Optimus fought Megatron and they were evenly matched. And Saphira was able to hurt him, too. This time, the two sides are much more balanced." he assured her truthfully.

"Let us hope so, Eragon. Now on a less serious but still important matter, did Angela revealed how she knew so much about the Technorganics?"

"No, and I wouldn't expect her to divulge that anytime soon."

"I thought so." Nasuada shrugged.

"Though I may have an idea." he was thoughtful. "When Angela arrived on Du Fläo abr Daburthr, she was already privy to the Cybertronians and their war. She even said exactly: _'To my eternal unfortunitude, my Decepticon experience was first-hand_.'

"As far as we know, Shockwave remained stranded for millennia until now. And only until recently were the Technorganics revealed. This leads to me believe that Shockwave was the first-hand experience she spoke of.

"What's more, Arya told me Angela seemed...particularly driven during the mission, as if looking or expecting for someone or something. Later, Angela split from the group during a fight and was found immobilized Shockwave, afterwards. She has so far refused to give any explanation."

"Have you confronted Angela with that?"

"Not yet. And honestly I see no point in trying."

"I am agreed." Nasuada sighed "Well, I'll leave you now, Eragon."

"One more thing, Nasuada. What has become of Helgrind?" he asked, half-curious.

"Helgrind is but a shadow of its former self. The two highest peaks crumbled completely. If I was concerned about panic, my fears were unfounded, though. The people of Dras-Leona are actually rejoicing with the fall of the Gates of Death. They always felt those mountains were haunting Dras-Leona. They see their destruction as much of a coming of a new age as the death of Galbatorix was." Nasuada allowed a small smile. "If only they knew the truth...But I prefer to let them believe that. We need every reason to smile nowadays."

"I know Saphira has a good reason to smile for a while." Eragon commented and Nasuada asked him to elaborate. "She has taken a taste of vengeance on the cowardly Decepticon lieutenant who launched the attack on Farthen Dûr."

"Oh?"

"She took his hand off and has sent it to Orik. She believes it will please him to have a prize for the attack on his home."

* * *

><p>"So what happened to you, this time?" Knockout, the narcissist red Decepticon medic quizzed jeeringly. "Did the Big M pounded you like scrap metal?"<p>

"None of your business, doctor. You are here to do your job!" Starscream hissed from his med berth, waving his stump indignated. "I had barely escape that brutish reptile beast when it took my servo!"

"Well, this is a perfect time for an upgrade I've been wanting to try." Knockout opened a storage compartment in the wall where several forearm parts were in display. "Uh, let's see. You could go with the sonic cannon. It's reliable, low-maintenance, although it lacks a certain flair. Hum, personally, I prefer the null ray. It has just the right mix of flash and firepower."

"I don't want any upgrades!" the Seeker shrieked. "I want the same hand I had!"

"Starscream, your equipment is a bit…" Knockout searched for a word that wouldn't offend the patient too much. "uh, obsolete. I'm not sure I have another one lying around. Of course, we could always try to salvage your old model. You kept it, didn't you?"

"It was…beyond recovery." the Seeker resigned himself.

* * *

><p>Arya thanked for the cup of lathiena tea Eragon offered her.<p>

"You have built something wonderful here. 'The Nest of Rebirth', a fitting name." Arya sat at his table, appreciating the magnificent view of the city through his balcony. From the main buildings surrounding the Mennla Traevam to the outskirts with the fields meant for crops and some for outdoors training. "And I especially like this tea."

"I have to admit, this plateau seemed like it was waiting for us, the perfect remote refuge." Eragon looked out of the window to see Saphira and Fírnen resting in a dragonhold, their snouts caressing one another. He turned back to Arya. "Would you like to stay for the night?"

"I cannot, I am needed on Ellesméra. In fact, Fírnen and I should be going now. He likes to fly at night and its nearly sunset."

"Oh," he felt disappointed. "Then may Saphira and I accompany you to the edge of the plateau?"

"Of course."

"Try visit a bit more often, please. We could really use the counsel of a true Elder Rider."

"I shall." she promised.

* * *

><p>And here we have a resumed story of Angela's origins. And for those who don't know, the title <strong>Shur'tugal Valdr<strong> I invented by using the Ancient Language word for '**ruler**'.


End file.
